Vaishnavism is the worship of Vishnu and his various incarnations. During a long and complex developmentfrom Vedic times, there arose many Vaishnava groups emerged with differing beliefs and aims. Some of the major Vaishnava groups include the Śrīvaiṣṇavas Shrivaishnavas and Dvaitins (“philosophical philosophical or religious dualists”dualists) of South India, the followers of the teachings of Vallabha in western India, and several Vaishnava groups in Bengal in eastern India, who follow teachings derived from those of the saint Caitanya. The majority of Most Vaishnava believers, however, take what they like draw from the various traditions and blend it worship of Vishnu with various local practices.

In the VedaVedas and Brahmanas, Vishnu is the god of far-extending motion and pervasiveness who, for humans in distress, particularly through constrictions, penetrates and traverses the triple spaces entire cosmos to make their existence possible. All beings are said to dwell in his three strides or footsteps (tri-vikramatrivikrama): his highest step, or abode, is beyond mortal ken in his dear and highest resort, the realm of heaven. So Vishnu is also the god of the pillar of the universe and is identified with the sacrifice. He imparts his all-pervading power to the sacrificer who imitates his strides and so identifies himself with the god, thus conquering the universe and attaining “the goal, the safe foundation, the highest light” (Śatapatha BrāhmaṇaShatapatha Brahmana).

In the centuries preceding the beginning of the Christian erabefore the Common Era, Vishnu became the Īśvara Ishvara (immanent deity) of his special worshipers, fusing with the PuruṣaPurusha-Prajāpati Prajapati figure; with NārāyaṇaNarayana, whose cult discloses a prominent influence of ascetics; with Krishna, who in the Bhagavadgītā revealed a popular and universal religion, open to everybody desiring to lead a socially normal life while having a prospect of final liberationwhom the Bhagavadgita identified with Vishnu as Doomsday; and with VāsudevaVasudeva, adored who was worshipped by a group known as the PāñcarātrasPancharatras.

The extensive mythology attached to Vishnu consists is largely that of the mythology of his incarnations (avatars). Although the notion of “incarnation” is found elsewhere in Hinduism, it is basic to Vaishnavism. The concept is particularly geared to the social role of Vishnu; whenever dharma (universal law and order) is in danger, Vishnu departs from his heaven, Vaikuṇṭha, and incarnates himself in an earthly form to restore the good order. Each of his incarnations has a particular mythologyEach of his incarnations, especially Krishna and Rama, has a particular mythology and is the object of devotional religion (bhakti). The classical number of these incarnations is 10, ascending from theriomorphic (animal form) to fully anthropomorphic manifestations. These They are : Fish (Matsya), Tortoise (KūrmaKurma), Boar (VarāhaVaraha), Man-Lion (NarasiṃhaNarasimha), Dwarf (VāmanaVamana), RāmaRama-with-the-Ax (ParaśurāmaParashurama), King RāmaRama, Krishna, Buddha, and the future incarnation, Kalkin. A god thus active for the good of society and the individual inspires love. Vishnu has indeed been the object of devotional religion (bhakti) to a marked degree, but mainly in his incarnations, and among them specially as Krishna and Rāma. The god rewards devotion with his grace, through which the votary may be lifted from transmigration to release. Like most other Moreover, like most other Hindu gods, Vishnu has his especial entourage: his wife is Lakṣmī Lakshmi, or ŚrīShri, the lotus goddess, granter of beauty, wealth, and good luck. She , who came forth from the ocean when gods and demons churned it in order to recover from its depths the ambrosia or elixir of immortality, amṛtaamrita. At the beginning of the commercial year, special worship is paid to her for success in personal affairs. Vishnu’s mount is the bird GaruḍaGaruda, archenemy of snakes, and his emblems are the lotus, club, discus (as a weapon), and a conch shell, which he carries in his four hands.

Whatever justification the different Vaishnava groups (e.g., the Śrīvaiṣṇavas such as the Shrivaishnavas of South India or the worshipers of Vishnu Viṭhobā Vithoba in MahārāshtraMaharashtra) offer for their philosophical position, all Vaishnavas of them believe in God as a person with distinctively high distinctive qualities and worship him through his manifestations and representations. God rewards devotion with his grace, through which the votary may be lifted from transmigration to release. Much of Vaishnava faith is essentially monotheistic, whether the object of adoration be Vishnu Nārāyaṇa Narayana or one of his avatarssuch as Rāma or Krishna. Preference for any one of these manifestations is largely a matter of tradition. Thus, most South Indian Śrīvaiṣṇavas Shrivaishnavas prefer Vishnu, RāmaRama, or Śrī Shri (Vishnu’s consort); the North Indian groups prefer Krishna.

The avatar doctrine , by accommodating accommodated the cults of various divine or heroic figures within a monotheistic framework, proved to be a powerful integrating force. Whenever the dharma declines and evil and general disaster threaten, God, the protector and preserver of the world, emanates himself and assumes an earthly form to guard the good, to destroy the wicked, and to confirm the dharma. The benevolence and beneficial activity of these figures (RāmaRama, Krishna, et al.) is, however, occasionally in doubt. In many mythical tales, Vishnu is depicted as a versatile figure of great adaptability, able, for instance, to disguise Vishnu often acts deceitfully, selfishly, or helplessly; sometimes he disguises himself as a fascinating young woman in order to trick the asuras asuras (antigods) out of the possession of the newly produced amṛta. His absorbing, many-sided character was a source of inspiration for various stories in which he often acts deceitfully, selfishly, or helplessly. The scene of his great deeds is usually laid in this world, especially India, in places often mentioned by name. The amrita. The narratives are full of the miraculous, but their central figures give the impression of human, sometimes being human—sometimes all too human, characters human—characters whose actions and reactions are within the limits of ordinary understanding.

A pronounced feature of Vaishnavism is the strong tendency to devotion (bhakti), which is generally considered to be “the heart of worship,” the sole true religious attitude toward a personal God, and the very foundation of the realization of man’s relationship with him. Characterized by a continual consciousness of participating in God’s essence, bhakti is the disinterested performance of all deeds for him, a passionate love and adoration of God, and a complete surrender to him. The widespread bhakti movement is a corollary of the Vaishnava ideal of a loving personal God and aversion to a conception of salvation that puts an end to all consciousness or individuality. Attesting to the superiority of a mystic and emotional attitude to the meditative or preponderantly ritualistic means to the highest goal, the practical and theoretical development of the bhakti idea constitutes one of the main points of difference among the several Vaishnava schools. The belief expressed in the Bhagavadgītā—that those who seek refuge in God with all their being will, by his benevolence and grace (prasāda), win peace supreme, the eternal abode—was generally accepted: bhakti will result in divine intercession with regard to the consequences of one’s deeds. Among many followers of Rāmānuja, however, complete self-surrender (prapatti) came to be distinguished from bhakti as a superior means of spiritual realization.

SaivismThe Shaivism

The character and position of the Vedic god Rudra—called ŚivaShiva, “the Mild or Auspicious One,” when this aspect of his ambivalent nature is emphasized—remain clearly perceptible evident in some of the important features of the great god ŚivaShiva, who together with Vishnu came to dominate Hinduism. During a complex development from ancient, possibly in part from pre-Vedic, times, many different Śaiva groups arose. Major groups such as the Liṅgāyats Lingayats of southern India and the Kashmir Śaivas Kashmiri Shaivas contributed the theological principles of ŚaivismShaivism, and Śaiva Shaiva worship became a complex amalgam of pan-Indian Śaiva Shaiva philosophy and local or folk worship.

In the minds of the ancient Indians Śiva must have been primarily Hindu, Shiva was the divine representative of the uncultivated, dangerous, unreliable, and much-to-be-feared and unreliable aspects of nature. Śiva’s Shiva’s character lent itself to being split into partial manifestations—each said to represent only an aspect of him—as well as to assimilating divine or demoniac demonic powers of a similar nature from other deities. Already in the Rigveda, appeals to him for help in case of disaster—of which he might be the originator—were combined with the confirmation of his great power. In the course of the Vedic period, Śiva—originally Shiva—originally a ritual and conceptual outsider, yet a mighty god whose benevolent aspects were readily emphasized—gradually gained access to the circle of respectable gods who preside over various spheres of human interest. Many characteristics of the Vedic PrajāpatiPrajapati, the creator, of Indra, the god of the phallus, and of the great Vedic god of fire, Agni, have been integrated into the figure of ŚivaShiva.

In those circles that produced the Śvetāśvatara Shvetashvatara Upanishad (c. 400 BCBCE), Śiva Shiva rose to the highest rank. Its author uses grandiose terms to show proposed a way of escape from samsara, to proclaim Śiva proclaiming Shiva the sole eternal Lord, and to establish Śiva’s existence. In this description of Śiva’s nature, some of the most salient features of the later Śiva, the Īśvara (immanent deity), are clearly discernible: he is the ultimate foundation of all existence and the source and ruler of all life, who, while emanating and withdrawing the universe, is the goal of that identificatory meditation that leads to complete cessation from phenomenal existence. While Vishnu became a friend nearer to man, Rudra-Śiva Rudra-Shiva developed into an ambivalent and many-sided lord and master. His “doubles” or partial manifestations, however, were active among mankindhumankind: as Paśupati Pashupati (“Lord of Cattle”), he took over the fetters of the Vedic VaruṇaVaruna; as Aghora (“To Whom Nothing Is Horrible”), he showed the uncanny traits of his nature (evil, death, punishment) and also their opposites.

It is not always clear in particular cases whether Śiva Shiva is invoked as a great deva ( god ) of frightful aspect, capable of conquering demoniac demonic power, or as the boon-giving Lord lord and protector. The Īśvara idea of a Highest Being demonstrably beyond contingency is rather abstract; hence its propagators needed to use imagery, popular belief, and mythical thought. Śiva Although Shiva might be the sole Principle principle above change and variation who sometimes sides with the demons, yet he did not sever his connections with innumerable local deities and much-feared powers worshiped worshipped by most Hindus, who still continue to invoke him in magical rites.Whereas Vishnu champions the cause of the gods, Śiva sometimes sides with the demons.

Śiva is a typical example of polarity within the Highest Being because he Shiva reconciles in his person semantically opposite though complementary aspects: he is both terrible and mild, creator destroyer and agent of reabsorptionrestorer, eternal rest and ceaseless activity. These seeming contradictions make him a paradoxical figure, transcending humanity and assuming a mysterious sublimity of his own. His character is so complicated and his interests are so widely divergent as to lead him in mythical narratives into conflicting situations. Yet, although Brahman philosophers like to emphasize his ascetic aspects and the ritualists of the Tantric tradition his sexuality, the seemingly opposite strands of his nature are generally accepted as two sides of one character.

Śiva Shiva temporarily interrupts his austerity and asceticism (tapas) , which is sometimes described as continuous, to marry Pārvatī—he is even said to perform ascetic acts in order to win her love—and to marry Parvati, and he combines the roles of lover and ascetic to such a degree that his wife must be an ascetic (yogi) when he devotes himself to austerities and a lustful mistress when he is in his erotic mode. This dual character finds its explanation in the ancient double conviction that unrestrained sexual intercourse is conducive to the fertility of nature and that the chastity and continence of the ascetic produce marvelous events and have an uncommon influence upon the unseen. By conviction that, by his very chastity, an ascetic accumulates (sexual) power that can be discharged suddenly and completelyso as to produce marvelous results such as , resulting in the fecundation of the soil. From various Various mythical tales it is seen reveal that both chastity and the loss of chastity are necessary for fertility and the intermittent process of regeneration in nature. Ascetics engaging in erotic and creative experiences are a familiar feature in Hinduism, and the element of teeming sexuality in mythological thought counterbalances the Hindu bent for asceticism. Such sexuality, while rather idyllic in Krishna, assumes a mystical aspect in ŚivaShiva, which is why the devotee can see in him the realization of the possibilities of both asceticism the ascetic life and the householder state. His marriage with Pārvatī Parvati is , then , a model of conjugal love, the divine prototype of human marriage, sanctifying the forces that carry on the human race.

Śiva’s myths tend to depict him as the absolutely mighty unique One, who is not responsible to anybody or for anything. His Shiva’s many poses express various aspects of his nature: as a dancer, he is the originator of the eternal rhythm of the universe; he also catches, in his thickly matted hair, the waters of the heavenly Ganges River, which destroy all sin; and he wears in his headdress the crescent moon, which drips the nectar of everlasting life.

Śiva Shiva represents the unpredictability of divinity. In him the Vedic Rudra is partly continued, but his mythology has become exceedingly complex. He is the hunter who slays and skins his prey and dances a wild dance while covered with the bloody hide. Far from society and the ordered world, he sits on the inaccessible Himalayan plateau of Mount KailāsaKailasa, an austere ascetic, averse to love, who burns KāmaKama, the god of love, to ashes with a glance from the third eye—the eye of insight beyond duality—in the middle of his forehead. Yet another epiphany is that of the lingam, an upright rounded post, usually of stone, representing a formalized phallic symbolphallus, in which form he is worshiped worshipped throughout India. And at the end of the eon, he will dance the universe to destruction. He is , nevertheless , invoked as ŚivaShiva, ŚambhuShambhu, Śaṅkara (meaning: “the Auspicious One” or “the Peaceful One”Shankara (“Benignant” and “Beneficent”), for the god that can strike down can also spare. Snakes seek his company and twine themselves around his body. He wears a necklace of skulls. He sits in meditation, with his hair braided like a hermit’s, his body smeared white with ashes. These ashes recall the burning pyres on which the sannyasis sannyasis (renouncers) take leave of the social order of the world and set out on a lonely course toward release, carrying with them a human skull.

Like so many ascetics—often irascible and dangerous—Śiva demands to be seduced. His Shiva’s consort is Pārvatī Parvati (“Daughter of the Mountain”Mountain [Himalaya]”), a goddess most unlike the consorts of Vishnu in his various incarnations. She is also personified as the Goddess (Devī “goddess”Devi), Mother (AmbāAmba), black and destructive (KālīKali), fierce (CaṇḍikāCandika), and well-nigh inaccessible (DurgāDurga). As Śiva’s Shiva’s female counterpart, she inherits some of Śiva’s Shiva’s more fearful aspects. She comes to be regarded as the power (shakti) of ŚivaShiva, without which Śĭva ĭs īĭtḥİaīīy poḳḥİīḥss. Śakti Shiva is helpless. Shakti is in turn personified in the form of many different goddesses, often said to be aspects of her.

Thus the spheres of the Vishnu complex and the Śiva complex are very different ones. In important respects they represent the two different ethics of Hinduism: the dharma ethic, which aims at upholding the dharma and the cosmic and social order based on it, and the moksha (liberation) ethic, which searches for release from an order that perpetuates transmigration.

Myths of culture heroes

A culture hero can easily be assimilated to a god by identifying him with an incarnation of a god. Thus, great religious teachers are considered manifestations of the god of their devotional preaching, and stories of their lives have become part of mythology. The mythology concerning great ascetics is a very rich mythology. Practically gods on Earthearth, these ascetics, according to mythology, have amassed tremendous powers that they do not hesitate to use. The sage Kapila, meditating in the netherworld, burned to ashes 60,000 princes who had dug their way to him. Another sage, BhagīrathaBhagiratha, brought the Ganges River down from heaven to sanctify their ashes and, in the process, created the ocean. Agastya, revered as the Brahman who brought Sanskrit civilization to South India, drank and digested the ocean. When the Vindhya mountain range would not stop growing, Agastya crossed it to the south and commanded it to cease growing until his return; he still has not returned. ViśvāmitraVishvamitra, a king who became a Brahman, created a new universe with its own galaxies to spite the gods.It is in such myths that the mythopoeic imagination exults in its sensitivity to the awesome, mysterious, and marvelous.

In myths concerning kings and princes, a prevailing theme is the trial of the son by the father. For example, the ancient king Yayāti Yayati had five sons to whom he wanted to transfer his own senescence for a stipulated period. All refused except the youngest, Puru. As a reward he became , whose reward was to become his father’s successor , and his whose descendants became the Pauravas, the line of succession or dynasty in which the heroes of the Mahābhāİata Mahabharatawere later born. The latter heroes also underwent a trial when they were exiled from their newly won kingdom; similarly, Rāma underwent his ordeal in exile. Heroines undergo their own trials, which usually involving a challenge to their chastity, as in the case of Sītā Sita in the Rāmāyaṇa Ramayanaand DraupadīDraupadi, the one wife of all five Pāṇḍava Pandava brothers, whose sari became endless when a lustful villain attempted to pull it off.

Moving from myth to legend, there are also stories told of the great teachers, and every founder of a sect is soon deified as an incarnation of a god: the philosopher Śaṅkara Shankara (c. 788–820) as an incarnation of ŚivaShiva, the religious leader Rāmānuja Ramanuja (d. AD 1137) as that of NārāyaṇaNarayana-Vishnu, and the Bengal teacher Caitanya (1485–1533) simultaneously as that of Krishna and his beloved RādhāRadha.

Myths of holy rivers and holy places

Of particular sanctity in India are the perennial rivers, among which the Ganges stands first. This river, personified as a goddess, originally flowed only in heaven until she was brought down by Bhagīratha Bhagiratha to purify the ashes of his ancestors. She came down reluctantly, cascading first on the head of Śiva, Shiva in order to break her fall, which would have shattered the Earth. Confluences are particularly holy, and the Ganges’ confluence of the Ganges with the Yamuna at Allahābād Allahabad is the most sacred spot in India. Another river of importance is the SarasvatīSarasvati, which loses itself in desert; it was personified as a goddess of eloquence and learning.

Every All major and many minor temples and sanctuaries have their own myths of how they were founded and what miracles were wrought there. The same is true of famous places of pilgrimage, usually at sacred spots near and in rivers; important among these are Vrindāvana Vrindavana (BrindābanBrindaban) on the Yamuna, which is held to be the scene of the youthful adventures of Krishna and the cowherd wives. Another such centre with its own myths is GayāGaya, especially sacred for the funerary rites that are held there. And there is no spot in Vārānasi Varanasi (Benares), along the Ganges, that is without its own mythical history.

Philosophical texts

Although the details of Indian philosophy, as it was has been developed by professional philosophers, may be treated as a subject separate from Hinduism (seeIndian Philosophyphilosophy), certain broad philosophical concepts were absorbed into the myths and rituals of Hindus and are best viewed as a component of the religious tradition.

Mysticism

One of the major trends of Indian religious philosophy is a kind of mysticism: the desire for union of the self with something greater than the self, whether that be is defined as a principle that pervades the universe or as a personal God. Hindu mysticism includes both these forms and a great many that lie in between. At one extreme is the realization of the identity of the individual self with the impersonal principle called brahman, the position of the Vedānta Vedanta school of Indian philosophy; and at the other is the intensive devotionalism to a personal God , called by a variety of names, that is found in the bhakti(devotional) sects.

There are four things common to most Most Hindu mystical thought displays four common features. First, it is based on experience: the state of realization, whatever it is called, is both knowable and communicable, and the systems are all designed to teach people how to reach it. It is not, in other words, pure speculation. Second, it has as its goal the release of the spirit-substance of the individual from its prison in matter, whether matter be is considered real or illusory. Matter is the cause of the suffering of which Buddhism speaks. Third, all the systems recognize the importance or the necessity of the control of the mind and body as a means of realization; sometimes this takes the form of extreme asceticism and mortification, and sometimes , at the other extreme, it takes the form of the cultivation of mind and body in order that their energies may be properly channeled. AndFinally, finally, at the core of Hindu mystical thought is the functional principle that knowing is being. Thus, knowledge is something more than analytical categorizing: it is total understanding. This understanding can be purely intellectual, and some schools equate the final goal with omniscience, as does yogaYoga. Knowing But understanding can also mean total transformation: if one truly knows something, he one is that thing. Thus, in the devotional schools, the goal of the devotee is to transform himself into a being who, in eternity, is in immediate and loving relationship to the deity. But despite the fact that these are both ways of knowing, the difference between them is significant. In the first instance, the individual has the responsibility to train and use his own intellect. The love relationship of the second, on the other hand, is one of dependence, and the deity assists the devotee through grace. The distinction is generally made by the analogy of the cat and the monkey: the cat carries her young in her mouth, and thus the kitten has no responsibility. But the young monkey must cling by its own strength to its mother’s back.

It is usual for writers on the subject, following Surendranath Dasgupta, a historian of Indian philosophy, to list five major varieties of Hindu mysticism, the five having arisen in historical order as follows:

The sacrificial, based on the Vedas and BrāhmaṇasBrahmanas.The Upanishadic, in which are found the beginnings of both monistic (concerned with a unitary principle of reality, immanent in the world) and theistic (concerned with a personal or suprapersonal God) systems.The yogicYogic, relating to physical and mental discipline; the earliest known text of this school is the Yoga-sūtra sutraof PatañjaliPatanjali, dated variously between the 2nd century BCBCEand the 5th century ADCE. According to yogic Yogic mysticism, man realizes union by means of physical and mental control of himself, which in turn leads to control of both natural and divine forces.The Buddhistic, in which enlightenment is the realization of the four Four Noble Truths—the fact of suffering, the cause of suffering, the cessation of suffering, and the means of arriving at these three truths: the Eightfold Path. The ultimate state, the culmination of one path of the Eightfold Path, is nirvana, “the blowing out,” the extinction of desire (seeBuddhism; Buddha).The devotional, or bhakti, typeof mysticism , which comprises a range of theistic systems, with a conception of absolute dualism between man humanity and God on the one extreme , and a conception of qualified nondualism on the other. Although there are traces of this devotionalism throughout the history of Indian religion, it began to develop in earnest in South India in the 7th through 10th century ADcenturies CEwith the hymns of the poet-saints called ĀḷvārsAlvars.

Philosophical sutras and the rise of the six schools of philosophyFrom about the beginning of the Christian era through the period of the Gupta empire, the Six Schools of philosophy

The systems of the Six Schools (ṢaḍḍarśanaSaddarshana) of orthodox Hindu philosophy were formulated in terse sutras from about the beginning of the Common Era through the period of the Gupta empire (320–540).

The most important of the Six Schools is the Vedānta Vedanta (“End of the Vedas”), also called Uttara-MīmāṃsaMimamsa or, or laterMīmāṃsā, Mimamsa. The most-renowned philosopher of this school andschool—and, indeed, of all Hinduism was Śaṅkara Hinduism—was Shankara (traditionally dated c. 788–820, but though he probably died about 20 years later). He was born at Kālaḍi in Kerala and lived in the first half of the 8th century). Born at Kaladi in Kerala, he is said to have spent most of his life traveling through India debating with members of other sects. The Śaṅkaran Shankaran system has sounded the keynote of intellectual Hinduism down to the present, but later teachers founded sub-schools of VedāntaVedanta, which are perhaps equally important.

Śaṅkara Shankara was also responsible for the growth of Hindu monasticism, which had been in existence for more than a millennium in the form of hermit colonies. Inscriptions from Gupta times onward also refer to monklike orders of Śaiva Shaiva ascetics, apparently living according to distinctive disciplines and with distinguishing garments and emblems. Śaṅkara Shankara founded the dashnami, a closely disciplined Śaiva Shiva order, perhaps partly modeled on the Buddhist sangha, or order, known as daśnāmīthe sangha. The dashnami, which is still the most influential orthodox Hindu ascetic group. The order , is composed of 10 brotherhoods and hence called daśnāmīs (dashnami means “those with 10 names”). Orders became an established institution with wider geographic affiliations. Some of these admitted Brahmans only; others were open to all four classes or even to women; some made a practice of nudity. These Śaiva communities are more ; and all are inclined to individual asceticismand are less closely organized than the Vaishnava vairāgins (“the dispassionate”) or gosvāmins (“the masters”). Śaṅkara . Shankara is also said to have founded the four main monasteries (maṭhamatha) at the four corners of India: Sringeri in Karnataka, Badrīnāth Badrinath in the Himalayas, Dwārkā Dwarka in GujarātGujarat, and Puri in Orissa. The abbots of these monasteries control the spiritual lives of many millions of devout Śaiva laymen Shaiva laypersons throughout India, and their establishments strive to maintain the traditional philosophical Hinduism of the strict VedāntaVedanta. In modern times, certain daśnāmīdashnamileaders have incurred criticism for their firm opposition to social change.

The theologians had to assume the task of explaining the relation between God, as the unaffected and unchanging cause of all things, and the universe. According to Rāmānuja the great South Indian thinker and devotee of Vishnu Ramanuja (c. 1017–1137), a great South Indian thinker of Śrīvaiṣṇava persuasion, brahman (i.e., God) is a Person with high attributes, as well as the object of an individual’s search for the higher knowledge that is the only entrance to salvation. Because an absolute creation is denied, God is viewed as the sole cause of his own modifications; namelymodifications—namely, the emanation, existence, and absorption of the universe. Although unlimitedly expansive, God is conceived to be essentially different from everything material, the absolute opposite of any evil, free from any imperfection, omniscient, omnipotent, possessed of all positive qualities (such as knowledge, bliss, beauty, and truth), of incomparable majesty, the inner soul of all beings, and the ultimate goal of every religious effort. The universe is considered a real transformation of brahman, whose “body” consists of the conscious souls and everything unconscious in their subtle and gross states. The karmadoctrine is modified as follows: the Lord, having determined good and bad deeds, provides all individual souls with a body in which they perform deeds, reveals to them the scriptures from which they may learn the dharma, and enters into them as their internal regulator. The individual acts at his own discretion but needs the Lord’s assent. If the devotee wishes to please him, God induces him, with infallible justice and loving regard, to intentions and effort to perform good deeds by which the devotee will attain to him; if not, God keeps him from that goal.

The influence of Influenced by the bhaktimovementhad earlier led Rāmānuja to admit , Ramanuja had admitted a twofold possibility of emancipation: in addition to the meditative method of the highest insight (jnana) into the oneness of soul and God, which destroys the residues of karmaand propitiates God to win his grace, there is the way of bhakti. Those who prefer the former way will reach a state of isolation, the others an infinitely blissful eternal life in, through, and for God, with whom they are one in nature but not identical. They do not lose their individuality and may even meet Vishnu in his Vaikuṇṭha Vaikuntha heaven and enjoy delight beyond description.

An interesting development of Rāmānuja’s doctrine of qualified monism is found in the philosophy of Madhva (died c. 1276). This Kanarese Brahman taught a doctrine of dualism according to which God and the soul are eternally distinct.

Authors of Śaiva Purāṇas Among many followers of Ramanuja, however, complete self-surrender (prapatti) came to be distinguished from bhakti as a superior means of spiritual realization.

Authors of Shaiva Puranas established two ingenious and complementary doctrines to explain the nature and omnipotence of God(the force that rules, absorbs, and reproduces the world and that in performing any one of these acts necessarily performs the other two as well), the existence of the world, and the identity of God and the world. A theory of five “faces,” or manifestations—each of which is given mythological names and related mantras—is mantras—is of great ritual significance. It associates Śiva’s Shiva’s so-called creative function, by which he provokes the evolution of the material cause of the universe, with his first face, or aspect; its the maintenance and reabsorption of the universe with his second and third faces; his power of obscuration, by which he conceals the souls in the phenomena of samsara, with his fourth face; and his ability to bestow his grace, which leads to final emancipation, with his fifth face. The five functions are an emanation of the unmanifested Śiva Shiva, who is the transcendent brahman.

The faces became the central elements of a comprehensive classification system. They were identified with parts of God’s body, regions of the universe, various ontological principles, organs of sense and action, and the elements. The system was used to explain how Śiva’s Shiva’s being is the All and how the universe is exclusively composed of aspects or manifestations of ŚivaShiva. In his fivefold nature, Śiva Shiva was shown to be identical with the 25 (five times five) elements or principles assumed by the prominent Saṃkhyā Samkhya school of Indian philosophy. The special significance of the number five in Śaivism Shaivism can be understood as a philosophical elaboration of the time-honoured fourfold organization of the universe. (The four quarters of the sky also play a prominent part in religious practice.) According to this conception, a fifth aspect, when added to the four, is considered the most important aspect of the group because it represents each of the four and collectively unites all of their functions in itself. The system finds its complement in the doctrine of the five Sadākhyas sadakhyas (five items that bear the name sat, “is” or “being”) representing the five aspects of that state, which may be spoken of as the experience of “there is” (sat) and which have evolved from God’s fivefold creative energy (shakti). In these , God “dwells” in his aspect called Sadāśiva (“the Eternal Śĭva”Sadashiva (“Eternal Shiva”), which is regarded sometimes as a manifestation of and sometimes as identical with the Supreme Being.

Another Śaiva Shaiva doctrine posits eight “embodiments” of Śiva Shiva as the elements of nature (ethernature—ether, wind, fire, water, earth), earth—and the Sun, the Moon, and the sacrificer, or consecrated worshiper (also called Atman). To each of these eight elements corresponds one of Śiva’s Shiva’s traditional names or aspects—to the last one, usually PaśupatiPashupati. The world is a product of these eight forms, consists of them, and can only exist and fulfill its task only because the eight embodiments cooperate. Because each individual is also composed of the same eight realities (e.g., the light of man’s eyes corresponds to that of the Sun), Śiva Shiva constitutes the corporeal frame and the psychical organism of every living being. The eighth constituent is the indispensable performer of the rites that sustain the gods who preside over the cosmic processes and are really Śiva’s Shiva’s faculties.

Although Śaivism Shaivism is a much more coherent whole than Vaishnavism, there evolved, branches with peculiarities of their own evolved in different parts of India, some branches with peculiarities of their own. According to the pronouncedly idealist monism of Kashmir ŚaivismShaivism, an important religiophilosophic religious-philosophical school, Śiva Shiva manifests himself through a special power as the first cause of creation, and he also manifests himself through a second power as the innumerable individual souls who, because of a veil of impurity, forget that they are the embodiment of the Highest. This veil can be torn off by intense faith and constant meditation on God, by which the soul transmutes itself into a universal soul and eventually attains liberation through a lightninglikelightning-like, intuitive insight into its own nature. Those Hindus who adhere to this group consider their doctrine a manifestation of the highest Realityreality, Knowing Consciousness, neither personal nor impersonal; as Śiva in the form of the transcendent Word, which is his unspoken Thought, the content of which is the universe.

The ŚaivaShaiva-siddhāntasiddhanta, a prominent religiophilosophic school of Tamil-speaking South India, assumes three eternal principles: God (who is independent existence, unqualified intelligence, and absolute bliss), the universe, and the souls. The world, because it is created by God (efficient cause) through his conscious power (instrumental cause) and maya(material cause), is no illusion. The main purpose of its creation is the liberation of the beginningless souls, which are conceived as “cattle” (paśupashu) bound by the noose (pāśapasha) of impurity (mala) or spiritual ignorance, which forces them to produce karma. However, they Members of this school see the karmaprocess as a benefit, for however, because they believe that, as soon as the soul has sufficiently ripened and reached a state of purity enabling it to strive after the highest insight, God graciously intervenes, appearing in the shape of a fully qualified and liberated spiritual guide (guru), through whose words God permits himself to be realized by the individual soul.

Tantrism

Tantric traditions and ŚāktismShaktism

Toward the end of the 5th century, the cult of the Mother Goddess began to achieve mother goddess assumed a significant place in Indian religious life. ŚāktismShaktism, the worship of the ŚaktiShakti, the active power of the godhead conceived in feminine terms, should be distinguished from Tantrism, the search for spiritual power and ultimate release by means of the repetition of sacred syllables and phrases (mantrasmantras), symbolic drawings (mandalasmandalas), and other secret rites elaborated in the texts known as tantras Tantras (“looms”“Looms”).

In many respects the tantras Tantras are similar to the PurāṇasPuranas. Theoreticallya tantra deals , the Tantras deal with (1) knowledge, or philosophy, (2) yogaYoga, or concentration techniques, (3) ritual, which includes the formation construction of icons and the building of temples, and (4) conduct in religious worship and social practice. In general, the last two subjects preponderateare the most numerous, while yoga Yoga tends to centre on the mystique of certain sound-symbols (mantrasmantras) that sum up esoteric doctrines. The philosophy tends to be a syncretistic mixture of Sāṃkhya Sankhya and Vedānta philosophical Vedanta thought, with special and at times exclusive emphasis on the god’s power, or shakti. The Tantric texts can be divided into three classes: (1) Śaiva Āgamas Shaiva Agamas (traditions of the followers of ŚivaShiva), (2) Vaishnava Saṃhitās Samhitas (“Collections of the Vaishnavas,” a name borrowed from the Vedic SaṃhitāsSamhitas), and (3) Śākta Shakta Tantras (“Looms of the Followers of the Goddess Śakti”Shakti”). However, they all have the common bond of venerating the Goddess.

Surviving The surviving Hindu tantras Tantras were written much later than many of those of Tantric Buddhism, and it may be that the Hindus derived much from the Buddhists in this respectwhich may have heavily influenced the Hindu texts. Although there is early evidence of Tantrism and Śāktism Shaktism in other parts of India, the chief centres of both were modern in Bengal, BihārBihar, and Assam.(See also Buddhism: Vajrayāna Buddhism in India.)

Śaiva ĀgamasShaiva Agamas

Like much other Hindu sacred literature, this literature is neither well-cataloged nor thoroughly studied. It is only possible here to summarize only classes of texts within the various traditions.

The sects of ĀH̱amĭc Śaivas Agamic Shaivas (Śiva Shiva worshipers who follow their own Āgama—“traditional”—textsAgama—“traditional”—texts) encompass both the Sanskritic ŚaivaShaiva-siddhānta— isiddhanta—i.e., those who accept the philosophical premises and conclusions of Śaivas Shaivas in the north—and the southern Liṅgāyats Lingayats or Vīİaśaivas Vilashaivas (from vīravira, literally “hero”; a lingam is the Śiva Shiva emblem that is worshiped worshipped in lieu of images). The ŚaivaShaiva-siddhānta siddhanta traditionally has 28 Āgamas Agamas and 150 sub-ĀgamasAgamas. Their principal texts are hard difficult to date; , though most of them probably they do were not antedate composed before the 8th century. Their doctrine states that Śiva Shiva is the conscious principle of the universe, while matter is unconscious. Śiva’s Shiva’s power, or shakti, personified as a goddess, causes bondage and release. She is also the magic Word, and thus her nature can be sought out and meditated upon in mantrasmantras.

Kashmir Śaivism Shaivism begins with the ŚivasūtraShiva-sutra, or “Lines of Doctrine Concerning Śiva” Shiva” (c. 850), as a new revelation of Śĭva. TḤḥ systḥm ḥmbİacḥs tḤḥ Śivadṛṣṭi Shiva. The system embraces the Shivadristi(“A Vision of Śiva”Shiva”) of Somānanda Somananda (950), in which emphasis is placed on the continuous recognition of ŚivaShiva; the world is a manifestation of Śiva Shiva brought about by his shakti. The system is called trika (“triad”), because it recognizes the three principles of ŚivaShiva, ŚaktiShakti, and the individual soul. Vīraśaiva Virashaiva texts begin at about 1150 with the Vācanams Vacanams(“Sayings”) of Basava. The sect is puritanical, worships Śiva Shiva exclusively, rejects the caste system in favour of its own social organization, and is highly structured, with monasteries and gurusgurus.

Vaishnava SaṃhitāsSamhitas

These consist of two groups of texts: Vaikhānasa Saṃhitās and Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās. The latter group is the prevailing one; , Vaikhanasa Samhitas and Pancharatra Samhitas, which together include more than 200 titlesare known, though the official number is 108. Vaikhānasa Saṃhitās Vaikhanasa Samhitas (collections of the Vaishnava school of VaikhānasasVaikhanasas, who were originally ascetics) seem to have embodied been the original temple manuals for the Bhāgavatas Bhagavatas (devotees of Vishnu), which by the 11th or 12th century had become supplanted by the Pāñcarātra Saṃhitās Pancharatra Samhitas (collections of the Vaishnava school of Pāñcarātra—“the System Pancharatra—“System of the Five Nights”). The philosophy of the latter is largely a matter of cosmogony, greatly inspired by both the Sāṃkhya and yoga philosophiesSankhya and Yoga teachings.

Apart from their theology, in which for the first time the notion of shaktiis introduced into Vaishnavism, they the Vaishnava Samhitas are important because they give an exposition of Vaishnava temple and cult practices. On the philosophical side it is maintained The texts also maintain that the supreme god Krishna Vāsudeva Vasudeva manifests himself in four coequal “divisions” (vyūhavyuhas), representing levels in of creation. These gods emanate as supramundane patrons before the primary creation is started by their shakti(power). In the primary creationŚakti , Shakti manifests herself as a female creative forceinspired by the Sāṃkhya philosophy’s cosmogony. Practically, stress is laid on a type of incarnation—“iconic incarnation”—in which a portion of the god is actually present with a portion of himself in a stone or statue, which thus becomes an icon; therefore, the icon can be worshiped worshipped as God himself.

Śākta Shakta Tantras

Śāktism Shaktism in one form or the other another has been known since Bāṇa Bana (c. 650) wrote his Hundred Couplets to CaṇḍiCandi(CaṇḍiCandi-śatakashataka) and Bhavabhūti Bhavabhuti his play Mālatī Mādhava (725), both of which Malati Madhava (early 8th century), about the adventures of the hero Madhava and his beloved Malati; both of these works refer to Tantric practices. There is no traditional authoritative list of Tantric texts, but many texts are extant.

Śāktism Shaktism is an amalgam of Śaivism Shaivism and folk mother - goddess cults. The Śaiva Shaiva notion that Shiva’s shakti, not Śĭva Shiva himselfbut his shakti (sexual, creative power) is active is taken to the extreme—that, without Śakti, Śiva extreme—without Shakti, Shiva is a corpse, and simultaneously that Śakti Shakti is the creator as well as creation. In yoga, great importance is ascribed to mantras, which conjure up the realities with which they are identified. Another important notion (partly derived from yoga Yoga philosophy) is that through throughout the body run there are subtle canals that carry esoteric powers connected with the spinal cord, at the bottom of which the Goddess is coiled around the lingam as Kuṇḍalinīkundalini (“coil”); she can be made to rise through the body to the top, whereupon release from samsaratakes place. Important among the Śākta Shakta Tantras are the Kulārṇava Tantra Kularnava-tantra(“Ocean of Tantrism”), which gives details on the “left-handed” cult forms of ritual copulation (i.e., those that are not part of traditional Hindu practice); the KulacūḍāmaṇiKulacudamani(“Crown Jewel of Tantrism”), which embroiders on discusses ritual; and the Śaradātilaka Sharadatilaka(“Beauty Mark of the Goddess Śaradā”Sharada”) of Lakṣmaṇadeśika Lakshmanadeshika (11th century), which discusses focuses almost exclusively on magic.

A temple was erected in honour of the mother goddesses goddess at GangdhārGangdhar, RājasthānRajasthan, in AD423 CE. There, magical Magical rites of a terrifying kind were apparently practiced there, for the temple is described as “loud with the shouts of demonesses, crying in the thick darkness,” by the playwright Bhavabhūtĭ, ḳḤosḥ ẖİama Mālatī Mādhava (about the adventures of the hero Mādhava and his beloved Māīatī) Bhavabhuti, whose drama Malati Madhavacontains a scene depicting secret rites with human sacrifice and ritual cannibalism. The goddess cults eventually centred around DurgāDurga, the consort of ŚivaShiva, in her fiercer aspect.

Nature of Tantric tradition

Tantrism, which appears in both in Buddhism and in Hinduism, is an important component of religion that, though Hinduism, influenced many religious trends and movements from the 5th century CE, but it was primarily meant for esoteric circles, also influenced, from the 5th century AD, many religious trends and movements. Opinions of what Tantrism is are quite diverse. Generally, Tantrism claims . Claiming to show in times of religious decadence a new way to the highest goaland , Tantrism bases itself upon mystic speculations concerning divine creative energy (shakti). Tantrism is thought to be a method of conquering transcendent powers and realizing oneness with the highest principle by yogic Yogic and ritual means—in part magical and orgiastic—which are also supposed to achieve other supranormal goals.

Tantrists take for granted that all factors in both the macrocosm and the microcosm are closely connected. The adept (sādhakasadhaka) has to perform the relevant rites on his own body, transforming its normal, chaotic state into a “cosmos.” The macrocosm is conceived as a complex system of powers that by means of ritual-psychological techniques can be activated and organized within the individual body of the adept. Contrary to the ascetic emancipation methods of other groups, the Tantrists emphasize the activation and sublimation of the possibilities of their own body, without which salvation is believed to be beyond reach.

The Tantrists of the VāmācāraVamacara (“the left-hand practice”) sought to intensify their own sense impressions by making enjoyment, or sensuality (bhoga), their principal concern: the adept pursued his spiritual objective through his natural functions and inclinations, which were sublimated and then gratified in rituals in order to disintegrate his normal personality. This implies that cultic life was also largely interiorized and that the whole world , because it became completely ritualized, was given a new and esoteric meaning.

Tantric worship (puja) is complicated and in many respects different from the conventional ceremonies that it has often influenced. Tantric devotees distinguish between an “external” and an esoteric meaning of their texts and interpret their texts by means of an ambiguous “twilight” language and distinguish between the texts’ “external” and their esoteric meaning. Tantrists describe states of consciousness with erotic terminology and describe physiological processes with cosmological terminology. They proceed from “external” to “internal” worship and adore the Goddess mentally, offering their hearts as her throne and their self-renunciation as “flowers.”

According to Tantrism, concentration is intended to evoke an internal image of the deity and to resuscitate the powers inherent in it so that the symbol changes into mental experience. This “symbolic ambiguity” is also much in evidence in the esoteric interpretation of ritual acts performed in connection with images, flowers, and other cult objects and is intended to bring about a transfiguration in the mind of the adept.

The mantras mantras (sacred utterances, such as hūṃhum, hrīṃhrim, and klaṃklam) are an believed to be indispensable means of entering into contact with the power they bear and of transcending normal mundane existence. Most potent are the monosyllabic, fundamental, so-called bīja bija(“seed”) mantrasmantras, which constitute the main element of longer formulas and embody the essence of divine power as the eternal, indestructible prototypes from which anything phenomenal derives its existence. The cosmos itself owes its very structure and harmony to them. Also important is the introduction of spiritual qualities or divine power into the body (nyāsanyasa) by placing a finger on the relevant spot (accompanied by a mantra).

Those Tantrists who follow the “right-hand path” attach much value to the yoga Yoga that developed under their influence and to bhaktiand aspire to union with the Supreme by emotional-dynamic means, their yoga being . For them, Yoga is a self-abnegation in order to reach a state of ecstatic blissfulness in which the passive soul is lifted up by divine grace.

There is also a Tantric mantra-yoga(discipline through spells), which operates with formulas, and a hatha-yoga, (Sanskrit: “union of force”). In addition to normal yogic practices—abstinences, observances, bodily postures, breath control that requires intensive training, Hatha-yoga incorporates normal Yogic practices such as abstinences; observances; bodily postures; breath control; withdrawal of the mind from external objects, ; concentration, contemplation, and identification that are technically helped by mudras with the aid of mudras (i.e., ritual intertwining of fingers or gestures expressing the metaphysical aspect of the ceremonies or the transformation effected by the mantrasmantras); and muscular contractions—hatha-yoga contractions. It also consists of internal purifications (e.g., washing out stomach and bowels), shaking the abdomen, and some forms of self-torture. The whole process is intended to “control the ‘gross body’ in order to free the ‘subtle body.’ ”’”

Some Tantrists also employ laya-yoga (“reintegration by mergence”), in which the female nature-energy (representing the shakti), which is said to remain dormant and coiled in the form of a serpent (kuṇḍalinīkundalini) representing the uncreated, is awakened and made to rise through the six centres (chakras) of the body, which are located along the central artery of the subtle body, from the root centre to the lotus of a thousand petals at the top of the head, where it merges into the PuruṣaPurusha, the male Supreme Being. As soon as Once the union of shaktiand Puruṣa Purusha has become permanent, according to this doctrine, wonderful visions and powers come to the adept, who then is emancipated. Some of the Tantric texts also pursue worldly objectives involving magic or medicine.

Tantric and Śākta Shakta views of nature, manhumanity, and the sacred.

The Tantric movement is sometimes inextricably interwoven with Śāktism. Śāktism consists of doctrines and practices that assume Shaktism, which assumes the existence of one or more shaktisshaktis. These are “creative energies” that are inherent in and proceed from God and are also capable of being imagined as female deities. Shakti is the deciding factor in the salvation of the individual and in the processes of the universe because God acts only through his energyenergy—which, which, personified as a goddess, is his spouse. Her role is very different in the various systems: she may be considered the central figure in a philosophically established doctrine, the dynamic aspect of brahman, producing the universe through her maya, or mysterious power of illusion; a capricious demoniac demonic ruler of nature in its destructive aspects; a benign mother goddess; or the queen of a celestial court. There is a comprehensive Śāktism that One form of Shaktism identifies the goddess (usually DurgāDurga) with brahman and worships her as the ruler of the universe by virtue of whom even Śiva Shiva exists. As Mahāyoginī Mahayogini (“Great Mistress of Yoga”), she produces, maintains, and reabsorbs the world. As the eternal Eternal Mother, she is exalted in the Devīmāhātmya Devimahatmya(“Glorification of the Goddess”) section of the MārkaṇḍeyaMarkandeya-Purāṇa purana(an important medieval Śākta Shakta encyclopaedic text). In the Bengal cult of the goddess KālīKali, she demands bloody sacrifices from her worshipers lest her creative potency fail her; this . This cult also propounds the belief that birth and death are inseparable, that joy and grief spring from the same source, and that the frightening manifestations of the divine should be faced calmly.

The Vedic goddess Vāc (her name means "Word") was then already the energetic and productive partner of Prajāpati. As Ardhanārīśvara (the “Lord Who Is Half Female”), Śiva presides over procreation. The Śāktas—often markedly associated with Śaivism—drew the following conclusions: creation is the result of the eternal lust of the divine couple; the man who is blissfully embraced by a beloved woman who is Pāİvatī’s counterpart assumes Śiva’s wonderful personality and, liberated, will continue the joy of amorous sport.

In all of his incarnations Vishnu is united with his consort, LakṣmīLakshmi. The sacred tales of his various relations with her manifestations led his worshipers to view human devotion as parallel to the divine love and hence as universal, eternal, and sanctified. In Vaishnava Tantrism, Lakṣmī Lakshmi plays an important part as God’s shakti—that is, as a central metaphysical principleshakti. In his supreme state, Vishnu and his shaktiare indissolubly associated with one another so as to and thus constitute the personal manifestation of the supreme brahman, also called LakṣmīLakshmi-NārāyaṇaNarayana. In mythical imagery, Lakṣmī Lakshmi never leaves Vishnu’s bosom. In the first stage of creation, she awakens in her dual aspect of action-and-becoming, in which she is the instrumental and material cause of the universe; Vishnu himself is the efficient cause. In the second stage, her “becoming” aspect is manifested in the grosser forms of the souls and the power of maya, which is the immaterial source of the universe. In displaying her power, she takes into consideration the accumulated karmaof the beings, judging mundane existence as merit and demerit. Presented in myth as God’s wife and the queen of the universe, she is always intent on liberating , by her favour and compassion, the incarnated souls of the devout; that is, she allows them to reenter into herself because they are really “parts,” or rather “contractions,” of her own essence. After entering her, the liberated soul takes part in the perfect embrace of the divine couple.Pāñcarātra

Pancharatra Vaishnavism emphasizes that Lakṣmī—who Lakshmi—who in the mythological sphere intercedes with her husband for the preservation of the world—spontaneously and by virtue of her own power differentiates herself from Vishnu because she has in view the liberation of the souls. This current of thought complicated its explanation of the relation between God and the universe—which was at the same time an attempt at assigning to God’s manifestations a place in a harmonious theological and cosmological system—with an evolutionist theory of successive creations. God is assumed to manifest himself also in three other figures, mythologically his brothers, who, each with his own responsibility, have not only a creative but also an ethical function, by which they assist those who seek to attain to achieve final emancipation.

Tantric ritual and magical practices

The ritual of the left-hand Tantrists consisted of a kind of black mass in which all of the taboos of conventional Hinduism were conscientiously violated. Thus, in place of the traditional five elements (tattvas) of the Hindu cosmos, these Tantrists used the five “m”sm’s: māṃsamamsa(flesh, meat), matsya (fish), madya (fermented grapes, wine), mudrāmudra(frumentum, cereal, parched grain, or gestures), and maithuna (fornication). This latter element was made particularly antinomian through the involvement of forbidden women, such women—such as one’s sister , or mother, the wife of another man, or a low-caste woman, who woman—who was identified with the Goddess. Menstrual blood, strictly taboo in conventional Hinduism, was also used at timesin Tantric rites. Such rituals, which are described in Tantric texts and in tracts against Tantrists, made the Tantrists notorious. It is likely, however, that the rituals were not regularly performed except by a relatively small group of highly trained adepts; the usual Tantric ceremony was purely symbolic and even more fastidious than the pujas pujas in Hindu temples.

The cult of the Śāktas Shaktas is based on the principle of the ritual sublimation of natural impulses to maintain and reproduce life. Śākta Shakta adepts are trained to direct all their energies toward the conquest of the Eternal. The ritual satisfaction of lust and the consumption of consecrated meat or liquor are esoterically significant means of realizing the unity of flesh and spirit, of the human and the divine. They are considered not considered sinful acts but , on the contrary, effective means of salvation. Ritual copulation—which may also be accomplished symbolically—is, for both partners, a form of sacralization, the act being a participation in cosmic and divine processes. The experience of transcending space and time, of surpassing the phenomenal duality of spirit and matter, of recovering the primeval unity, the realization of the identity of God and his ŚaktiShakti, and of the manifested and unmanifested aspects of the All, constitute the very mystery of ŚāktismShaktism.

The interpretation—metaphorical or literal—of the doctrines is, however, largely a matter of opinion and practice. Ritual practice is indeed as varied as the doctrines. Extreme Śākta communities interpretation of doctrines and ritual practice is varied. Extreme Shakta communities, for example, perform the secret nocturnal rites of the śrīcakra shricakra(“wheel of radiance,” described in the Kulārṇava TantraKularnava-tantra), in which they avail themselves of the natural and esoteric symbolic properties of colours, sounds, and perfumes to intensify their sexual experiences. Most Tantrists, however, eliminate all but the verbal ritual.

Individual and collective yoga Yoga and worship, conducted daily, fortnightly, and monthly “for the delectation of the deity,” are of special importance. After elaborate purifications, the worshipers—who must be initiated, full of devotion toward the guruand God, have control over themselves, be well prepared and pure of heart, know the mysteries of the scriptures, and look forward to the adoration with eagerness—make the prescribed offerings, worship the mighty puissance power of the Divine Mother, and recite the relevant mantras. Once they have mantras. Having become aware of their own state of divinity, they are qualified to unite sexually with the Goddess. If a woman is, in certain rituals, made the object of sexual worship, the Goddess is first invoked into her; the worshiper is not to cohabit with her until his mind is free from impurity and he has risen to divine status. Copulation with a low-caste woman helps to transcend all opposites; union . Union with a woman who belongs to another man is often preferred because it is harder to obtain, nothing is certain in it, and the longing stemming from the separation of lover and beloved is more intense—it intense; it is pure preman (agape, or divine love); adoration . Adoration of a girl of age 16 aims at securing the completeness and perfection of which this number is said to be the expression. However, the texts reiterate how dangerous these rites are for those who are not initiated; those who perform such ritual acts without merging their minds in the Supreme are likely to go to one of the hells.

The esoteric Vaishnava-Sahajiyā Sahajiya cult, which arose in Bengal in the 16th century, was another emotional attempt at reconciling the spirit and the flesh. Displaying contempt for social opinion, its adherents, using the natural (sahaja, “born with”) qualities of the senses and stressing the sexual symbolism of Bengal Vaishnavism, reinterpreted the Rādhā–Krishna Radha-Krishna legend and sought for the perpetual experience of divine joy: . Based on this understanding of the legend, members of the Vaishnava-Sahajiya cult held that, after arduous training, the realization of love can be experienced, because Krishna’s nature is love and the giving of love and because man is identical with Krishna, the realization of love can, after an arduous training, be experienced in man’s nature. Women, being a ritual necessity as well as the embodiment of a theological principle, could even become spiritual guides, like RādhāRadha, conducting the worshiper worshipers in his their search for realization. After reaching this state, he a devotee remains in eternal bliss , and can dispense with guruand ritual , and be completely indifferent to the world, “steadfast amidst the dance of maya.”

Tantric and Śākta Shakta ethical and social doctrines

These ethical and social principles, though fundamentally the same as those promulgated in the classical dharmaworks, breathe a spirit of liberality: much value is set upon family life and respect for women (the image of the Goddess); no ban is placed on traveling (conventionally regarded as bringing about ritual pollution) or on the remarriage of widows. Although Tantric and Śākta Shakta traditions did not oblige their followers to deviate in a socially visible way from the established order, they provided a ritual and a way of life for those who, because of sex or caste, could not participate satisfyingly in the conventional rites.

The ancient Tantric tradition, based on the esoteric tantraliterature, has become , through time, so interwoven with more orthodox Hinduism that it is difficult to define precisely. Although it sees recognizes an identity between the soul and the cosmos, it speaks of emphasizes the internalization of the cosmos rather than of the release of the soul to its natural state of unity. The body is the microcosm, and the ultimate state is not only omniscience but total realization of all universal and eternal forces. The body is real, not because it is the function or creation of a real deity but because it contains the deity, together with the rest of the universe. The individual soul does not unite with the One—it is the One, and the body is its function.

Tantrism, though not always in its full esoteric form, is a feature of much modern mystical thought. In Tantrism the consciousness is spoken of as moving—driven by repetition of the mantraand by other disciplines—from gross awareness of the material world to realization of the ultimate unity. The image is of a serpent, coiled and dormant, awakened and driven upward in the body through various stages of enlightenment until it reaches the brain, the highest awareness. The modern 19th-century mystic Ramakrishna describes the process, which is also describes the experience that all Hindu mystical processes mystics seek:

When [the serpent] is awakened, it passes gradually through [various stages], and comes to rest in the heart. Then the mind moves away from [the gross physical senses]; there is perception, and a great brilliance is seen. The worshiper, when he sees this brilliance, is struck with wonder. The [serpent] moves thus through six stages, and coming to [the highest one], is united with it. Then there is samādhi samadhi.. . When …When [the serpent] rises to the sixth stage, the form of God is seen. But a slight veil remains; it is as if one sees a light within a lantern, and thinks that the light itself can be touched, but the glass intervenes.. . . In samādhi…In samadhi, nothing external remains. One cannot even take care of his body any more; if milk is put into his mouth, he cannot swallow. If he remains for twenty-one days in this condition, he is dead. The ship puts out to sea, and returns no more.(Translation by Edward C. Dimock, Jr. Source is Śrīśİīrāmakṛṣṇa-kathāmṛta; Calcutta: Ramakrsna Mission.)

Vernacular literatures

Most of the texts cited in this survey are Sanskrit texts, which constitute the oldest layer of preserved extant Hindu literature. But the sacred literature of India is by no means not as monolithic as these texts might suggest. Several other essential elements exist: independent sacred literatures in languages other than Sanskrit and material in other languages related to the Sanskrit texts either as sources of material now preserved only in Sanskrit or as new texts originating as translations of Sanskrit texts. Because Sanskrit has been in intimate contact with the “mother tongues” mother tongues of India for such a long time, it is often impossible to determine in which of these categories a particular vernacular text belongs.

Indologists usually emphasize the influence of Sanskritic (often called “Aryan”) culture on Dravidian culture, and indeed this influence was considerable. Sanskritic influence was already in evidence in the earliest Tamil (a principal Dravidian language) literature, perhaps dating from the 1st century ADCE. At this time in South India the orthodox cults were aristocratic in character and were supported by kings and chiefs who gained in prestige by patronizing Brahmans and adopting Aryan ways. The Tamils were still primarily devoted to the old cults, some of which, however, were taking on an Aryan complexion. The pastoral god Murugaṉ Murugan was identified with Skanda, and his mother, the fierce war goddess KoṛṛavaiKorravai, with DurgāDurga. VaruṇaṉVarunan, a sea god who had adopted the name of the an old Vedic god but otherwise had few Aryan features, and MāyoṉMayon, a black god who was a rural divinity with many of the characteristics of Krishna in his pastoral aspect, also are depicted in Tamil literature. The final Sanskritization of the Tamils was brought about through the patronage of the Pallava kings of KānchipuramKanchipuram, who began to rule in the 4th century ADCEand who financed the making of many temples and fine religious sculptures. Similar processes were taking took place in the Deccan, Bengal, and other regions.

Sanskritization is a term that refers to a style of text that imitates the customs and manners of the Brahmans. But, although most sacred texts in Sanskrit were composed by Brahmans, many were also composed by lower-class authors. Likewise, although some sacred texts in vernacular languages were written by authors of lower castes, many others were written by Brahmans. In addition, because Sanskrit ceased to be spoken as a primary language soon after the Vedas were composed, it is likely that most of the thoughts underlying all subsequent Sanskrit literature were emerged first thought in some other language. Yet Indologists tend to be Sanskritists, and Sanskritists tend to assume that all texts originated in Sanskrit. Indeed, even the counterbalancing tendency to acknowledge the flow from non-Sanskrit to Sanskrit sources has often misfired; far too often it is merely asserted that anything that appears in post-Vedic Hinduism and is not attested in the Vedas is “Dravidian,” “Dravidian” or, even worse, from the Indus civilization (about whose religion virtually nothing is known). The issue is further clouded by the fact that, though Sanskrit texts tend to be written and vernacular traditions are primarily oral, there are important oral traditions in Sanskrit , too (including the traditions of the two great Sanskrit epics), and there are important manuscript traditions in some of the non-Sanskritic languages (such as Bengali and Tamil). Indeed, written and oral versions of the epics and Purāṇas Puranas have been, from the very start, in constant symbiosis.

Little relevance, therefore, attaches to a the distinction between “written” written and “oral” oral traditions. A myth is essentially told or narrated, a process that is designated in Sanskrit by such words as purāṇapurana(ancient story) and ākhyānaakhyana(illustrative narrative). In the oldest source, the Rigveda, myths are not so much told as alluded to; it is in the later Vedic literature of the Brāhmaṇas Brahmanas that narratives are found, and these are often prejudiced by the liturgical concerns of the authors.

The recitation of certain myths was prescribed for specific various rituals. The epic MahābhārataMahabharatastates that Vedic stories were narrated “in the pauses of the ritual,” probably by Brahmans. The warrior class (Kṣatriyas) had their own mythographers in their sūtasutas (charioteers and panegyrists), who celebrated the feats of great rulers. These sūtas, who became , were the mythographers of the Kshatriyas (the warrior class). The sutas were popular narrators of myth and legend , had and developed their own bardic repertoire, which soon was extended to higher mythology. They—and other wanderers who found ready audiences at sacrifices or places of pilgrimage—disseminated the lore.

Such narrators still Narrators continue to repeat and embroider their the ancient stories of gods, sages, and kings. At an early stage their narratives were dramatized and gave rise to the Sanskrit theatre, in which epic mythic themes preponderate, and to the closely related dance, which survives in the now largely South Indian schools of bharata-natya(traditional dance) and the kathakali(narrative dance) of Kerala. Thus, even in Sanskrit literature, oral performance was an essential component, which further facilitated the assimilation of oral vernacular elements.

When the Indo-Europeans, who spoke Sanskrit, an About 1500 BCE, invaders speaking Indo-European language, Sanskrit entered India in around 1500 BC, most of the people they encountered and encountered a population whose majority spoke languages that belonged to a major non-Indo-European linguistic group called Dravidian. These two language groups interacted from a very early period, and, although the earliest preserved specimens of Sanskrit (themselves dating from a period long after the Indo-Aryan invasions) far antedate examples of any other languages, there is good reason to believe that the other languages also produced texts , although unrecorded, at a very early period. When the devotional aspect of Hinduism came into full flower, the vernacular traditions both in Dravidian language groups languages and in languages derived from Sanskrit began to record their texts and to have a more discernible influence upon the Sanskrit tradition.

Of the four primary Dravidian literatures—Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, and Malayalam—the oldest and best-known is Tamil. The earliest preserved Tamil literature, the so-called Caṅkam or ŚaṅgamShangam poetry anthologies, dates from the 1st century BCBCE. These poems are classified by theme into akam (“interior,” primarily love poetry) and puṟampuram(“exterior,” primarily about war, the poverty of poets, and the deaths of kings). The bhaktimovement has been traced to Tamil poetry, beginning with the poems of the devotees of Śiva Shiva called Nāyaṉārs Nayanars and the devotees of Vishnu called ĀḷvārsAlvars. The NāyaṉārsNayanars, who date from about AD800 CE, composed intensely personal and devout hymns addressed to the local manifestations of ŚivaShiva.

The most famous Nāyaṉār Nayanar lyricists are Appar, Sambandar, and Cuntarar, whose hymns are collected in the Tevāram Tevaram(c. 11th century). More or less contemporary were their Vaishnava counterparts, the Āḷvārs Alvars Poykai, PūtaṉPutan, PēyārPeyar, and Tirumaṅkaiyāḻ-vār, Tirumankaiyalvar; and in the 8th century the poetess Āṇḍaḷ, Periyāḻvār, Kulacēkarar, TiruppānāḻvārAndal, as well as Periyalvar, Kulacekarar, Tiruppanalvar, and notably NammālvārNammalvar, who is held to be the greatest, composed their works. The devotion of which they sing exemplifies sang exemplified the new bhaktimovementthat seeks , which sought a more direct contact between man humans and God, carried by a passionate love for the deityDeity, who reciprocates would reciprocate by extending his grace to manhumankind. These saints also became the inspiration of theistic systematic religion: the Śaivas Shaivas for the ŚaivāShaiva-siddhāntasiddhanta, the Vaishnavas for ViśiṣṭādvaitaVishistadvaita. In Kannada the same movement was exemplified by Basava, whose vācanamvacanams (“sayings” or “talks”) achieved great popularity.His religion, that of Vīraśaivism, was perhaps the most “protestant” of the bhakti religions.

New Dravidian genres continued to evolve into the 17th and 18th centuries, when the Tamil Cittars (name derived from the Sanskrit siddhas, “perfected ones”one”), who were eclectic mystics, composed poems noted for the power of their naturalistic diction. The Tamil sense and style of these poems belied the Sanskrit-derived title of their authors, a phenomenon that could stand as a symbol of the complex relationship between Dravidian and Sanskrit religious texts.

The main languages derived from Sanskrit are Bengali, Hindi (with its many dialects, of which Maithili is the oldest and Urdu, heavily influenced by Persian and Arabic and written in a Perso-Arabic script, is the most important), Punjabi, Gujarati, MarāṭhiMarathi, Oriya, Kashmiri, Sindhi, Assamese, Nepali, Rajasthani, and Sinhalese. Most of these languages began to develop literary traditions around ADabout 1000 CE.The

Although the earliest texts in Hindi are those attributed to the 13th–14th-century Muslim poet Amīr Khosrow., it was not until the 15th century that Hindi literature produced its own great religious lyricistsbeginning with . The earliest of these lyricists were the disciples of Rāmānanda Ramananda (c.1450140), who was a follower of the philosopher RāmānujaRamanuja. Among them the The most famous of these lyricists is Kabīr, whose bhakti was nonsectarian. TulsīdāsKabir, a poet and mystic who was the forerunner of Sikhism. Tulsidas, apart from his RāmcaritmānasRamcaritmanas, composed Rāmaite Ramaite lyrics. Sūrdās Surdas (1483–1563), a follower of the Vallabha school of VedāntaVedanta, is famous known for his SūrsāgarSursagar(“Ocean of the Poems of Sūr”Sursagar”), a collection of poems based on the stories of the childhood of Krishna , following the account of the Bhāgavata-Purāṇafound in the Bhagavata-purana. In the Marāṭhi Marathi tradition, Nāmdev (c. 1300Namdev (1270?–1350?) celebrated Vishnu, particularly in his manifestation as Viṭṭhobā Vitthoba at the Pandharpur temple; and in the 17th century TukārāmTukaram, the greatest poet of this literature, sang of the god of love in numerous hymns.

The importance of these writers is not limited to literature. A small sect, the KabīrpanthīsKabirpanthis, acknowledges Kabīr Kabir as its founder, but its importance is less than that of the vigorous new religion (Sikhism) founded by one of Kabīr’s Kabir’s disciples, Nānak. In its final form, Sikhism contains elements taken from Islām (equality in the faith, opposition to iconolatry, extreme reverence for the sacred book) and probably also from Christianity (the Sikh baptism and communion meal), but its theology is still essentially Hindu.Nanak.

Although the earliest Hindu text in Bengali is a mid-15th-century poem about Rādhā Radha and Krishna, medieval texts in praise of gods and goddesses, known as maṅgalmangal-kāvyaskavyas, must have surely existed in oral versions long before thatthen. In later Bengal Vaishnavism, the emphasis shifts from service and surrender to mutual attachment and attraction between God (i.e., Krishna) and humankind: God is said to yearn for the worshiper’s identification with himself, which is his gift to the wholly purified devotee. The mystical and devotional possibilities of the Krishna legend are made subservient subordinated to religious practice; the divine sport and wonderful feats of this youthful hero are interpreted symbolically and allegorically. Thus, the highest fruition of bhaktiis admission to the eternal sport of Krishna and his beloved RādhāRadha, whose sacred love story is explained as the mutual love between God and the human soul. Various gradations of bhaktiare distinguished, such as awe, subservience, and parental affection. These are correlated with the persons of the Krishna legend; the highest and most intimate emotion is said to be the love of Rādhā Radha and her girlfriends for Krishna.

A particularly rich Bengali tradition centred in Bengal concentrated on the love of RādhāRadha, who symbolizes the human soul, for Krishna, the supreme Godgod. In this tradition are Caṇḍīdās Candidas, a 15th-century poet known for his love songs, and the Maithili poet Vidyāpati Vidyapati (c. 1400). The greatest single influence single most influential figure, however, was Caitanya, who in the 16th century renewed Krishnaism. He left no writings but inspired many hagiographies, among the more most important of which is the Caitanya-caritāmṛta caritamrita(“Nectar of Caitanya’s Life”) by Krishna Dās Das (born 1517).

Caitanya had a profound and continuing lasting effect on the religious sentiments of his Bengali countrymen and the people of Bengal. He propagated the community celebration (saṃkīrtanasankirtana) of Krishna as the most powerful means of bringing about the proper bhaktiattitude. Caitanya also introduced the worship of God, the director of man’s the senses, through the very activity of man’s the senses, which must be free from all egoism and completely filled with the intense desire (preman) for the satisfaction of the beloved (i.e., Krishna).

The Another form of religious lyric continues in are the so-called pādapadas (verses); . Govinda Das (1537–1612) is one of the greatest poets in this bhaktigenre of poetry in which divine love is symbolized by human loveis Govinda Dās (1537–1612). The songs of Rāmprasād Ramprasad Sen (1718–75) similarly honour Śakti Shakti as mother of the universe and are still in wide devotional use. The most famous religious lyrics in Gujarati are the poems of the saint Mīrā Bāī Mira Bai (1503–73), who wrote passionate love poems to Krishna, whom she regarded as her husband and lover.

The complex interaction between Sanskrit and non-Sanskrit religious classics may be seen in the development of the epics. Parts of the two great Sanskrit epics, the MahābhārataMahabharataand the RāmāyaṇaRamayana, and many Purāṇas Puranas (especially the BhāgavataBhagavata-Purāṇapurana) were translated into various vernaculars. Technically, these These works were not literal translations , but free versions in which the authors placed inserted their own emphases, different which differed both from the original and from one anotherthose of other authors. The oldest of the vernacular versions version of the Rāmāyaṇa Ramayanais the Tamil one of Kampaṉ translation, the Iramavataram by Kampan (c. 12th century), a work of high literary distinction that is suffused with devotion (bhakti)and of high literary distinction. Another famous translation in Tamil, written by Villiputturar, exists from the 18th century. A Telugu rendering was made by Ranganātha Ranganatha about 1300. In Bengali several translations were made, with Several translations in Bengali include some interesting and probably authentic variations from the “official” Rāma Rama story by VālmīkiValmiki, the best-known one by Kṛttibās Ojhā translation being that of Krittibas Ojha (1450). Equally, if not more, famous is the Hindi version by Tulsīdās (c. 1550), entitled Rāmcaritmānas (Ramcaritmanas (“Holy Lake of the Acts of Rāma”Rama”).

The Mahābhārata Mahabharatawas translated into Bengali about 1600 and into Telugu by Nannaya and Tikkana in the 13th century. The BhāgavataBhagavata-Purāṇapurana, which was translated frequently (e.g., into Bengali by Maladhar Vasu, 1480), was popular both as a text and because it gave the canonical account of Krishna’s life and especially his boyhood, which is the perennial inspiration of the bhaktipoets.

In Marāṭhi the The teacher Jñānadeva Jnanadeva (also known as JñāneśvaraJnaneshvara; c. 1275–96) composed a commentary on the BhagavadgītāBhagavadgita in Marathi that remains a classic in that literature. His work was continued by Eknāth Eknath (c.1600), who also composed bhaktipoetry. In the 16th century the Kannada poet Gadugu produced his own a highly individual version of the MahābhārataMahabharata. In addition to the above literal or not-so-literal translations of the Sanskrit epics, the Tamils composed their own epics, notably Iḷaṅkō Aṭikaḷ’s CilappatikāramIlanko Atikal’s Cilappatikaram(“The Lay of the Anklet”) and its sequel, the MaṇimekhalaiManimekhalai(“Jeweled Girdle”). In Telugu there is the great Palnāḍu EpicPalnadu epic; Rajasthani has an entire epic cycle about the hero Pabuji. The remaining vernaculars have also produced many other works of the epic genreepics of their own.

Much of the classical mythology persists today, and Hindus are exposed to it year-round. Meanwhile, the mass media have made their contributions: the type of motion picture called “mythological” is its stories have been conveyed to Hindus through traditional means as well as via the mass media. Mythic illustrations are favourites in Indian calendar art. Motion pictures called “mythological” are extremely popular, perpetuating the ancient storiesto the village level, and so are “devotionals,” in which an example of bhaktiis illustrated. The radio Radio regularly carries bhajans (devotional songs) and classical South Indian songs, the themes of which are often mythic. Every orthodox Hindu’s home has at least one corner set aside as a domestic sanctuary where representations of a chosen deity are placed, and puja(worship) is done with prayers, hymns, flowers, and incense. Richer establishments set aside entire rooms as shrines.Mythic illustrations are favourites in Indian calendar art.

Mythology has adjusted itself effortlessly to modernitythe modern world. The ashram of the 20th-century mystic and religious leader Śrī Shri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, dedicated to the Mother Goddess (personified by this group as a single principle), is was an extremely modern establishment complete with tennis courts. New temples are have been constructed with modern techniques; one temple in Vārānasi Varanasi (Banaras) contains mirrors onto which are etched the entire RāmcaritmānasRamcaritmanas. This same poem is the basis of the annual celebration of Rām Līlā Ram Lila (the play of RāmaRama) in northern India, in which the entire community participates. The Rāma story of Rama was evoked by Mahatma Gandhi when he set the Rām Rāj Ram Raj (“Kingdom of Rāma”Rama”) as India’s governmental ideal.

On occasion, social protesters arm have armed themselves with myth to make a point. For example, the personality of KarṇaKarma, an antagonist in the Mahābhārata Mahabharatawho is berated for his low birth, is has been extolled in intellectual circles as a truer champion than the aristocratic heroes. A Kannada-language play of the 1960s based on the life of King Yayāti enjoyed great popular and critical success. Anti-northern groups in Tamil Nadu revised the story of RāmaRama, whose expedition against the demon Rāvaṇa Ravana is believed by some to be the Aryan invasion of South India, by reversing it to abuse Rāma Rama and to glorify RāvaṇaRavana.

On a popular level, people at temples and fairs are continually reacquainted with their mythological heritage by paurāṇikapauranikas, tellers of the ancient stories , and heirs of the sūtasutas of 3,000 years ago, and no festival ground is complete without tents where the religious are reminded of their myths by pious speakers, modestly compensated by fees but richly rewarded by the honour in which they are held.

Folk Hinduism

Despite the impact of the West, the propaganda of modern reform movements, and the spread of education and secularist modernization, Hinduism has changed only slowly. For ordinary Hindus, religion primarily consists of the manual and verbal performance of rites to promote their private interests. The innumerable ceremonies, observances, fasts, feasts, pilgrimages, and visits to nearby temples constitute the essence of religion.

General characteristics of folk traditions

For millions, the main motive of religious practices is still the fear of ambivalent powerful beings. Most Hindus propitiate the meat-eating, sometimes benevolent but largely malevolent deities concerned with man’s daily events, their ancestors or the founder of their community, and those various spirits that have no permanent residence and cause evil and misfortune. Hindus strive to escape the powers of the evil eye; to manipulate those spirits dwelling in wells, trees, stones, water, and ground; to counteract curses, witchcraft, plague, and cholera; and to worship village godlings who may give rain or a bountiful harvest. They make use of astrology, divination, and the reading of omens and auspicious moments. A large variety of purifications and ritual prohibitions, charms, and amulets to ward off any kind of misfortune (including bad luck in lawsuits and examinations) are, in the eyes of the majority, of greater importance than the atman-brahman doctrine. Even the hope of heaven or the fear of hell has little vogue in various regions, except among the higher castes.

It is difficult to draw a sharp line of distinction between popular Hinduism, the beliefs and practices of more or less Hinduized “external” groups, and Indian tribal religion. Many elements of tribal culture that in a particular region have not been adopted by those recognized as belonging to the Hindu fold are in fact similar to what has been adopted by Hindus in other areas. Tribal people and outcaste groups are, on the other hand, always willing to worship a few more gods or to imitate the rituals of lower-caste Hindus. Age-long processes of interpenetration and fusion have led to an adoption of many local and popular cults into general Hinduism—or, because it expressed itself mainly in Sanskrit, into the Great, or Sanskritic, tradition—and to the identification of regional gods with the great figures of the Hindu pantheon. Popular belief is integrated rather than discounted or discarded. This process is facilitated by a tendency toward the assimilation of local beliefs by pan-Indian Hinduism and by an unwillingness to deny gods and cults (the worship of a local river deity, for example, may be identified with that of the Ganges). The inheritors of the Little, or regional, traditions accepted, as a result of continual and complicated Hinduizing influences, vegetarianism, regular fasts, and food restrictions; they also began to object to the remarriage of widows, to observe Hindu festivals, to sing Hindu religious songs, to perform funeral and other ceremonious worship and, most importantly, to imbibe the ideas embodied in religious and mythological narratives. Thus, various tribal or outcaste groups have a religion with some affinities to a simple Śaivism without sacred books or regular liturgy.

While many Hindus pursue their approach to the divine individually, corporate worship in families, villages, and sects is far more common in some castes. These groups exhibit the utmost variation in beliefs and practices. As a rule, each community practices only a small segment of the whole spectrum of religious behaviour as the expression of its own religious life. As to the relation between religion and social structure, there are in many communities differently structured systems, each with its own religious behaviour, in which their members may be involved. As members of a joint family, they take part in the domestic cult and ritually express family solidarity at such critical points as mourning or marriage; as members of a village community, they take part in its particular cult, which is a collective action of that community. Different castes, however, establish their own rituals in order to foster unity and to differentiate themselves from others. There is, on the other hand, ritual cooperation between different villages of the same region.

For many communities, spiritual reality is complex: while many women may address local spirits, family ancestors, and goddesses of disease, some of the men may embrace monotheistic ideas. The village’s guardian spirit and the saint of a Muslim shrine may also be worshiped, Rāma’s name is invoked in prayers, and the major deities are honoured chiefly during their periodic festivals. Marriage and other ceremonies combine ancient Sanskritic rites with popular and local features, and even members of the higher classes may accept the entire range of belief. In many regions, each caste has both general Hindu and “parochial” rituals and beliefs, but the proportions in which the two are found together vary from caste to caste and from locality to locality. The upper castes everywhere, however, have a certain amount of Sanskritic ritual in common; but even those who are more or less exclusively devoted to Śiva, for example, do not necessarily constitute a Śaiva community.

The bhakti movements have long influenced the religious feelings of their followers, and religious problems are discussed by people of all professions and intellectual levels. Divine assistance is implored on every imaginable occasion; ancient Vedic rites have even been used as a defense against atomic danger.

Regional varieties of folk religion

In the hilly and mountainous regions of North India, Śaivism, aligned with Śāktism, is prevalent. The awe and mystery of the jungle and mountains are, there and elsewhere, personified as forest “Mothers” or mountain deities, represented by piles of stones or branches of trees to which every passerby contributes an offering. Mother Earth is a great goddess whose marriage (with the Earth god or the Sun) is festively celebrated and whose annual period of impurity is observed by a cessation of all agricultural activities. During the harvest season she is propitiated with wild orgies. In secluded parts of central India she is identified with Devī, a goddess mostly worshiped in North India. Very often, however, she shows herself in her malevolent form, as Mother Death (Mārī) or as Kālī. There are also many lower caste groups that have adopted a Vaishnava way of life either in order to raise their social status or to have a prospect of salvation.

In the east and northeast, where, broadly speaking, Śāktism is dominant, though Vaishnavism is also common, popular belief has modified the transmigration doctrine by the assumption that the soul of the deceased reappears in a child born in the same family within a year after the person’s death. Among the female deities, there are tutelary goddesses of young children and women in childbed: Ṣaṣṭhī, “the Sixth,” is worshiped on the sixth day after birth and is represented by a compost pile of cow dung or earth that is placed in the birth room; and Caṇḍī, a form of the goddess Durgā, lives in trees and is propitiated by lumps of earth. The snake goddess Manasā is personified in a plant of the same name or in a stone carved into the shape of a female seated on a snake; a day in the rainy season, when reptiles are most dangerous, is devoted to her priestless and unpretentious worship. In literary works she is eulogized as the Great Mother who is expected to give a prosperous journey through life and, to a certain extent, is also Sanskritized by being identified with epic snake demons. Another example of fusion of general and local Hindu institutions is the conviction that ghosts and demons are warded off by performing a ceremony in honour of the deceased at Gayā in modern Bihār state.

In many regions—especially in western India, where Vaishnavism is dominant—believers admit that virtue will improve their lot in a subsequent existence, but they do not seem to strive for final union with the Supreme. Here, and elsewhere, a workaday religion meant to meet the requirements of everyday life exists alongside a higher religion understood only by the Brahmans, who are called on to officiate on important occasions. In order to discover the divine will, exorcists and mediums, possessed by mother goddesses and submitting themselves to self-torture, are called upon to prophesy about future events. In these regions the worship of snakes is more prominent, and some temples are even dedicated to them. Practices based on the belief in scapegoats, ritual nudity, and black magic are also widespread.

The whole of peninsular India is mainly devoted to Śaivism, devotional forms of Vaishnavism, and the worship of the goddess in her many forms. A striking feature in the religion of South India is the propitiation of usually local female village deities of varied and ambivalent character, to whom in almost every settlement a simple shrine or other sacred place is dedicated. These deities are thought to be particularly competent for dealing with the facts of village life, such as diseases of the inhabitants and their cattle. Special cholera and smallpox goddesses are the subject of elaborate stories. In a few cases—e.g., that of Māriyammā, the smallpox goddess of South India—such a goddess is known to a large region. These mothers, from whom all good and bad luck emanate, are almost universally worshiped with animal sacrifices, and the priestly ministrants (pūjāİī) officiating in their cult belong to the non-Brahman groups. The goddesses may be represented by various symbols (stone pillars, sticks, clay figures) that need not be permanent. Most of their shrines are simple, small brick buildings or rough stone platforms under a tree. Offerings of rice, fruit, and flowers may be made every day or on fixed days; although there often is a fixed annual festival, it is not uniformly celebrated and no calendar of festivals is established. An exception to this is the male deity Aiyanār, who in the countryside of Tamil Nādu state is worshiped as the watchman and patron of the villages but also is implored to grant children and other blessings. He is a vegetarian and therefore ranks as socially superior to the female village goddess with whom he has entered into a complementary relation. Aiyanār is worshiped either as a village deity or in a temple dedicated to Śiva, where he is given the rank of a son of that god. In these Śiva temples he is legitimated by higher Hinduism and fulfills the function of a double of Śiva representing “All-India” or general Hinduism in the village, which does not regard him as an outsider. Śiva himself is also worshiped and given a consort, who, though considered a manifestation of Durgā, has various names according to the tradition of temple or village.

Sacred snakes, especially cobras, are also given offerings—partly to avert danger from these reptiles, partly to propitiate them with the aim of obtaining rain, fertility, or children; to that end women worship snake stones (nāgalkals) or erect stone figures of cobras. Every joint family of the Coorgs in Karnātaka state and most other peoples have a snake deity of their own that is said to embody their welfare. Here and there, Brahmans officiate in this cult, which usually takes place in small sanctuaries in private gardens. Although also known in other parts of India, the methods of exorcising evil spirits known as devil-dancing are most fully developed in South India. The notorious hook-swinging festival, Caḍak-pūjā, held for propitiatory purposes in cases of famine or other calamities—a man was suspended by hooks at the end of a long pole and swung around—though strictly prohibited, survived to the 20th century. Greater festivals are, generally speaking, either celebrated at the chief agricultural seasons or connected with the expulsion of malign powers.

Folk and tribal myths

There is a great diversity in folk mythology throughout the entire Indo-Pakistan subcontinent, but these myths have neither been fully collected nor systematically studied. Among locally important deities, Manasā, a snake goddess, worshiped in Assam and Bengal to ward off snakebites and secure prosperity, has an enormous mythology of her own. In South India one finds popular cobra cults with a variety of myths and lore. In Mahārāshtra, a form of Vishnu, known as Viṭṭhal or Viṭṭhobā, has also spawned a rich mythology.

The sources of folk and tribal mythology are vernacular literature, oral tradition, folklore, and folk and tribal arts. Folk mythology derives from the most ancient times and has influenced both Vedic and classical mythology. Classical mythology became what it is by continuously assimilating myths not previously known or accepted, so that the line between classical and folk (and tribal) mythology is apt to be arbitrary. The Great (Sanskrit) tradition of classical mythology (as contrasted with the local, or Little, traditions of folk mythology) may include within its scheme a god who continues to have an independent existence on a folk level. Sacred manifestations of purely local interest are associated with the higher mythology by becoming a Little manifestation of a Great god, such as the footstep of Rāma and the bathing place of Sītā (Rāma’s wife). Conversely, an incident of the Great tradition may be adopted and adapted on the folk level. For example, the local Mahārāshtrian god Viṭṭhobā is identified with a manifestation of Vishnu and thus assured a place in the Great tradition; on the other hand, in North India, the widely celebrated festival of Navarātrī (“Nine Nights”) is associated with the village goddess Naurthā.

Certain concepts that evolved in Purāṇic mythology have facilitated the absorption of folk elements; two of these should be singled out: avatar (avatāra, incarnation), and vāhana (vehicle).

The concept of avatar (literally “descent”) issues from the belief that in times of trouble a god, notably Vishnu, incarnates himself as a man or hero to set matters right. Such a concept provides the opportunity for identifying a local deity (like Viṭṭhobā, above) with an all-Indian god like Vishnu. The concept may also extend to the worship of very local hierophanies (manifestations of the sacred; e.g., South Indian Vaishnavism accepts “icon-incarnation” [ arcāvatāra], in which Vishnu “descends” in a local icon).

According to the concept of a vāhana (literally “mount”), every god has an entourage of his own, which includes a favourite riding animal; this facilitates many folk associations. Vishnu’s mount is the bird Garuḍa, an old solar symbol; Śiva’s is the bull Nandi, whose worship may go back to the ancient Harappan civilization. There are other mythological patterns, such as adoption in a family; thus the folk god Gaṇeśa, an elephant-headed god, is made the son of Śiva, as is Kumāra Kārttikeya, the war god, who arose from the South Indian war god Murugaṉ. Hanumān, the monkey god, becomes an all-Indian god as a helper of Rāma, who is an avatar of Vishnu.

Other spirits and godlings of folk provenance are not absorbed to the same degree and thus retain their folk character. Important are the snakes (nagas), to which great power is attributed; the yakshas, koboldlike keepers of wealth, whose king is Kubera; vetālas, ghoulish pranksters who haunt corpses; and spirits of the restless dead (bhuts, pretas), who must be warded off. Though the existence of these spirits is fully recognized in the classical mythology, they operate primarily on the folk level.

It is therefore difficult to find folk myths and cults that are not in one form or another elevated into the Sanskrit tradition by a specific association with a major god. Only where there has been no appreciable cultural contact between Indian tribal people and Hindus (or “Hinduized” folk groups) can a significant distinction be drawn between classical Hindu mythology and “folk” mythology. The myths of the tribes of Chota Nāgpur (Bihār state), the Santāl (West Bengal and Bihār states), the Toda in the Nīlgiri Hills (Tamil Nādu state), and others are examples of such mythology. Much religious material lies hidden in folktales.

Practical Hinduism

Practical Hinduism is both a quest to achieve well-being and a set of strategies for locating sources of affliction and removing or appeasing them. Characterized in this way, it has much in common with the popular beliefs and practices of many other religions. For example, Roman Catholicism as practiced in many parts of Europe or Mahayana Buddhism in Korea and Taiwan involve, as does Hinduism, petitions and offerings to enshrined divine powers in order to engage their help with all manner of problems and desires. Thus, religions which could hardly differ more vastly in their understanding of the nature of divinity, reality, and causality may nonetheless converge at the level of popular piety.

The presumption that assigns “practical” Hinduism to peasants, labourers, or tribal peoples—while assuming that the high-born, wealthy, and educated would be concerned with spiritual enlightenment and Hinduism’s ultimate aim of liberation (moksha)—is false. Hindu farmers care about their souls at least as much as do Hindu business or professional men and women (if less single-mindedly than world renouncers, who come from all ranks of life). Farmers’ uncertain livelihoods, however, may influence them to dedicate more time and energy to rituals designed to obtain prosperity or to remove troubles, to bring rain to parched fields or to prevent damaging hail, to advance their children’s education and careers, or to protect their families from ill health. Although rural Hindus may have little time for meditative practices, they are fully aware of ultimate truths transcending the everyday. By the same token, the pious urban elite, if more likely to pursue spiritual disciplines, frequently sponsor worship in temples or homes to ensure worldly success. At all levels of the social hierarchy, Hinduism lives through artistic performances: dance and dance-drama, representational arts, poetry, music, and song serve not only to please deities but to transmit the religion’s meaningful narratives and vital truths.

Both adherents of the faith and those who study it describe Hinduism as a way of life. Thus, they implicitly contrast Hinduism to religions that appear to be primarily located in spaces and times set apart from the everyday—such as “church on Sunday.” Although Hindus have magnificent sacred architecture and a vital tradition of calendrical festivals, the “way of life” description means that religious attitudes and acts permeate ordinary places, times, and activities. For example, bathing, dressing, cooking, eating, disposing of leftovers, and washing the dishes may all be subject to ritual prescriptions in Hindu households. Motivations for such ritualized actions are ascribed to considerations of purity—an interest that is often linked to maintaining status in a hierarchical social system.

When Hindus interact with deities, considerations of purity may or may not be important. In some Vaishnava traditions, for example, one must remain in a relatively pure state in order to be fit to worship. A Brahman priest of a Krishna temple in the Vallabha sect might refuse food and water from the hands of non-Brahmans, not to show he is better than they are but because his work in the temple demands that he maintain such boundaries. Should he inadvertently lower his own ritual purity, he might displease or offend the deity with whom he is in regular contact, which could threaten human well-being in general.

Vaishnava traditions, however, include an alternative perspective that is conveyed in a well-known tale about Rama. This tale, frequently portrayed in poetry and art, tells of an outcaste tribal woman named Shabari who meets Rama in the forest. Her simple-hearted love for him is so great that she offers him wild berries, which are all she has. She bites each one first to test its sweetness before giving it to her lord, and in so doing she contaminates the berries with saliva, a major source of pollution. Although the berries are highly unacceptable according to the standards of ritual purity, Rama accepts them and eats them blissfully. The message is that the polluted offerings of a lowborn person given to God with a heart full of love are far more pleasing than any ritually pure gift from a less-devout being. Purity of heart, therefore, is more important than bodily purity.

The capacity to see both sides of most matters—cognitive flexibility rather than dogmatic fixity—is one of the most important characteristics of practical Hinduism, which lacks dogma altogether. In this regard, persistent continuities with Hinduism’s ancient roots in Vedic traditions can be discerned. The elaborate sacrificial rituals of Vedic religion have often been described as being focused on obtaining the goods of life—neatly summarized as prosperity, health, and progeny—from divine powers through exacting ritual behaviours. However, in the Upanishads, the last of the Vedic texts, voices emerge that care for neither the rituals nor their promised fruits but are concerned above all with learning the nature of ultimate reality and how the human soul may recognize that indescribable essence in itself. One quest never supplants the other. In Hinduism today there remains a vital creative tension between, on the one hand, faith in the efficacy of ritual and desire for its worldly fruits and, on the other, disregard for all external practices and material results. Farmers consistently deride the notion that sins are washed away in the waters of sacred rivers, yet they spend small fortunes to travel to and bathe in them.

Devotion

Devotion (bhakti) effectively spans and reconciles the seemingly disparate aims of obtaining aid in solving worldly problems and locating one’s soul in relation to divinity. It is the prime religious attitude in much of Hindu life. The term bhakti is derived from a root that literally means “having a share”; devotion unites without totally merging the identities of worshipers and deities. While some traditions of bhakti radically speak out against ritual, devotion in ordinary life is usually embedded in worship, vows, and pilgrimages—three major elements within practical Hinduism.

Theistic devotion presents itself as an easy path, obliterating the need for expensive sacrificial rituals, difficult ascetic practices, and scriptural knowledge. All of these are understood as restricted to high-caste males, and in practice specifically to the rich, the spiritually gifted, or the learned. But bhakti is for all human beings, regardless of their rank, gender, or talent. Any person’s chosen deity may help him obtain life’s rewards or avoid its disasters. At the same time, such a chosen deity may be the subject of pure, unmotivated devotional love, recollected in a few moments of morning meditation, in prayers uttered before a shrine, or in the lighting of incense.

Deities

As one Hindu author Sitansu Chakravarti helpfully explains in Hinduism: A Way of Life (1991),

Hinduism is a monotheistic religion which believes that God manifests Himself or Herself in several forms. One is supposed to worship the form that is most appealing to the individual without being disrespectful to other forms of worship.

Although the specific details of ritual action and the names and appearances of deities vary vastly across the subcontinent, commonalities in ritual structure and attitude override the great diversity of ritual practices and associated mythic tales. Whether offering soaked raw chickpeas to Shiva’s agent Bhairuji in Rajasthan or a buffalo to Draupadi in Tamil Nadu or water to Krishna’s devoted basil plant in Bengal, Hindus approach deities through similarly structured actions. These are just as pan-Hindu as the eternal Vedas or the three important deities—Shiva, Vishnu, and the Devi, whose forms and names vary widely but are nonetheless recognizable to Hindus throughout the world.

Ethnographies of rural Hindu practices reveal a wide variety of human relationships with multiple divine beings. These relationships are based not only on family and community affiliations but also on individual life experiences, so that individuals and families often develop idiosyncratic religiosities while remaining well within the range of normative patterns. A household of Gujars (a community associated with herding, dairy production, and agriculture) in a Rajasthani village presents one representative example. This family is particularly devoted to two deities from whom they believe they have received special blessings: Dev Narayan, a regional hero considered to be an avatar or incarnation of Vishnu, and Sundar Mata (“Beautiful Mother”), a local goddess, or village mother.

Dev Narayan is worshipped at multiple sites throughout Rajasthan. However, each of his shrines—in Puvali, in Banjari, and so forth—has its own identity. This particular family lives a short walk from Puvali’s Dev Narayan, but they believe that the more remote Banjari’s Dev Narayan—located near their ancestral home—has blessed two generations with long-awaited sons. They go weekly for darshan (divine vision of a deity’s image) to Puvali’s Dev Narayan, as it is convenient. But when the time comes to hold a major feast of thanksgiving to the deity who granted their prayers, they go to a great deal of extra trouble and added expense to hold this feast at the more remote place of Banjari. If questioned, the adults in this family would state conclusively that there is no difference between the two places and moreover that God is ultimately singular and to be found nowhere on the face of the earth but rather in one’s own body and heart. An everyday Hinduism embedded in materiality motivates the distinction between Banjari and Puvali, while a Hinduism that dissolves differences and seeks transcendent unity denies it. Most persons live their lives holding and moving between both these orientations.

Sundar Mata has only one place, on the edge of the Gujar family’s home village. She has helped them with various problems over the years. In times of trouble, devotees sometimes make inner vows to Sundar Mata (or any deity), no matter where they are. But to fulfill that vow, thankful persons must present themselves and their offerings in her particular place. Sundar Mata’s shrine, like most Hindu places of worship, accumulates gifts dedicated by grateful worshipers. For example, the largest iron trident at Sundar Mata’s shrine was offered by a migrant labourer who lost his suitcase on the train back from Delhi. He vowed to give his village goddess a huge trident if he got the bag back, which he miraculously did.

Although a local deity, Sundar Mata is related to pan-Hindu goddesses such as Lakshmi, Parvati, or Durga. They are all thought to be manifestations of a single goddess; name and form are ultimately not significant. Yet again it should be noted that human worshipers attach themselves to certain images and localities, and, for those devoted to Sundar Mata, not any goddess will do.

This family that honours Dev Narayan and Sundar Mata also worships lineage deities at home. Ritual attention to the spirits of deceased uncles and infants ensures their household’s well-being, and each domestic group takes similar care of loved ones who have died. Several members of the Gujar family portrayed here have taken a once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage as far as Haridwar in Uttar Pradesh, Gaya in south-central Bihar, and Puri in eastern Orissa. Mementos of these journeys—such as framed images of the sacred Ganges River’s descent to earth or the central icons from the temple of Puri in Orissa—are placed in their home shrine. Home shrines in general accumulate sacred objects and images eclectically. Images are treasured and are believed to manifest miraculous powers, but images are also understood to be lifeless and dispensable—another reflection of the Hindu genius for seeing both sides.

Worship

Worship, or puja, is the central action of practical Hinduism. Scholars describe Hindu worship as a preeminently transactional event; through worship, humans approach deities by respectful interactions with their powers. At every level, from elaborate temple rituals to simple home practice, worship consists of offerings made and blessings received; reverence is rendered and grace pours down. The purpose of many rituals is to promote auspiciousness (kalyana, mangala, shri)—a pervasive Hindu concept indicating all kinds of good fortune or well-being.

Ritual manuals in vernacular languages offer explicit instructions on exactly what should be offered and declare what benefits may be obtained through specific acts of worship. Benefits may be as general as health and prosperity or as specific as the removal of a particular illness. They also conventionally include rewards after death—thus uniting this-worldly and other-worldly blessings. Devotional songs and statements, however, persistently deny all mechanical views of divine exchanges, insisting that humans have nothing to give, that everything belongs to God, and that no truly religious action should ever be performed instrumentally. Thus, the key tension between external ritual and internal realization that originated in Vedic times and was perpetuated in devotional teachings is sustained in popular present-day ritual action.

One key element in all worship is prasad, translated simply as “blessing” or “grace” and sometimes more literally as “blessed leftovers.” This term refers to the returned portion of a worshiper’s or pilgrim’s offering, which is understood as having value added by the intangible process of a deity’s consumption. Prasad to be used for offerings is hawked by vendors on the road to a temple, but this food does not truly become graced until it has been given as an offering and received back. Many foodstuffs are used as prasad; bananas or other raw fruits and coconuts are particularly common, as are various candies and milk products. Fresh flowers are often included on an offering tray and may also be returned as prasad. Other substances commonly distributed at temples include the water in which icons have been ritually bathed, called charanamrit (“foot nectar”), and the ash from burnt offerings. What all these have in common is contact with the deity’s power in the process of worship and service.

Another important element of temple worship is seeing the deity: darshan. Here again, a two-way but fundamentally unequal flow takes place. An image is always enlivened and given eyes; the worshiper’s delighted gaze at the deity engages the deity’s awareness of the worshiper, and a channel of grace is formed. Sound and scent also alert deities to humans in their presence. Ringing bells, blowing conch shells, singing or playing instrumental music, burning incense, and pouring clarified butter onto smoldering coals are among the activities intended to alert the deity of the devotee’s presence. Worshipers commonly prostrate themselves, symbolically offering respect and their own bodies. A circumambulation of the deity’s altar is another physical mode of engagement with divine power. Hindu worship is accurately described as involving all the senses.

Worship is by no means confined to temples. It may be performed at a home altar, a wayside shrine, or anywhere a devotee decides to mark off a sacred space. Actions at home may be far less elaborate than those at temples, more routinized as part of daily household life, and are performed without priestly expertise. South Indian housewives traditionally turn their thresholds into auspicious altars for the goddess each morning as they draw ritual designs, which are almost instantly trampled back into dust.

Conceptually distinct from worship yet often conflated with it is seva, or service. This refers to regular, respectful attentions to the needs of enshrined deities, or icons (murti). Service in many temples is twice daily or more often. At shrines it may involve bathing an icon, changing its ornaments, ringing bells, and waving lights before it (arati). In temples the person who does seva is normally a ritual expert, regularly present. Although seva is never done with an aim in mind, it is understood to keep the gods beneficently inclined, and flawed seva may cause trouble. Performing seva is good for the soul of the server.

Divination, spirit possession, and healing

Simple practices of divination are common to practical Hinduism. Everyone wants to know: Will my wish be fulfilled? Will my prayer be granted? The answers to such yes-no questions may be revealed by any of a number of practices. Plucking grains between thumb and finger from a pile and counting them to see if they add up to an auspicious number, pressing flowers to the wall and waiting for them to fall, and pouring clarified butter on coals and seeing if a flame rises up are common practices in more than one region of India.

A more elaborate mode of communicating with divine power is spirit possession, in which a human being, male or female, is thought to act as a vehicle for a deity’s mind and voice. This practice is also found in every geographic region where Hinduism flourishes. Although more common to rural areas, it is not absent from urban religion. A possessed priest or priestess is able to provide answers more complex than “yes” or “no.” A medium possessed by a deity may identify certain spirits of the dead who are troubling someone with symptoms of physical and mental illness. Usually these spirits are understood to cause trouble because they are not satisfied with the attention they are getting. The medium will prescribe ritual actions designed to transform the spirit from a source of affliction to a benevolent or neutral power or to send the spirit away. Purely malevolent beings, including jealous “witches” or nameless wandering ghosts, are cajoled, bullied, or even frightened into departure.

Practical Hinduism is greatly concerned with maintaining mental and physical health. Although a possessed priest occasionally forbids resort to doctors and their remedies, in the majority of cases healing rituals operate in conjunction with medicines, injections, and operations. Familial problems are often untangled with the help of a possessed priest in consultations sometimes likened by observers to group therapy.

Women’s religious practices

Women’s rituals comprise an important part of practical Hinduism. Some male-authored Hindu scriptures limit women’s religious roles, consider women more subject than men to bodily impurities, and subordinate them to their fathers and husbands. Priests in temples and other public spaces are predominantly—though not exclusively—male. Most domestic Hindu rituals, however, lie in the hands and hearts of women. Women perform their own seva and puja at permanent or temporary domestic shrines, are the chief ritual experts at many calendrical festivals, and are responsible for many ritual aspects of weddings and other life-cycle celebrations. Women more frequently than men undertake personal vows (vrata)—individually or collectively—to ensure the well-being of their families.

The elements of a vrata usually include a partial fast, simple worship in a domestic space temporarily purified for this purpose, and often the retelling of one or more stories honouring the deities and exemplifying the rewards or describing the origins of the ritual. The event may conclude with the consumption of special food to break the fast. Vows are often associated with calendrical cycles, whether solar, lunar, or both. For example, each day of the week is identified with a particular deity: Monday with Shiva, Tuesday with Hanuman, Wednesday with Ganesha, and so forth. If a woman undertakes a Monday vrata, she will fast and worship Shiva and tell his story every Monday. Or, a person may do an eleventh vrata, a vow for the eleventh day of the lunar calendar, which would come twice a month in the waxing and waning halves of the moon. Some vows are undertaken for the occasional potent convergence of both calendrical systems, such as somavati amavasa, a Monday dark moon.

Women’s ritually performed stories feature heroines who may be devotees of the deity being honoured, daughters of female devotees, or persons ignorant of that particular deity who then learn about its power and blessings in the course of severe tribulations. Notably, the heroines of women’s devotional stories exemplify moral virtues, ritual knowledge, devotional fervour, and transformative agency. The power accumulated by women through their ritual actions should never be used exclusively for their own well-being. Selflessness is a very important virtue that is exemplified by self-denial in fasting. Nonetheless, because women’s well- being is connected to familial well-being, women see their rituals as productive of better circumstances for themselves and their loved ones. For women, practical Hinduism is a space where they express their competence, self-respect, and power and see themselves as protectors of husbands, brothers, and sons. Even while critiquing the ways in which some Hindu traditions disadvantage women, Indian feminists have located important resources for women in goddess worship, in vrata narratives, and in the sense of gender solidarity and self-worth that women’s rituals produce.

Pilgrimage

Pilgrimage in Hinduism, as in other religions, is the practice of journeying to sites where religious powers, knowledge, or experience are deemed especially accessible. Hindu pilgrimage is rooted in ancient scriptures. According to textual scholars, the earliest reference to Hindu pilgrimage is in the Rigveda (c. 1500 BCE), in which the “wanderer” is praised. Numerous later texts, including the epic Mahabharata (c. 300 BCE–300 CE) and several of the mythological Puranas (c. 300–750 CE), elaborate on the capacities of particular sacred sites to grant boons, such as health, wealth, progeny, and deliverance after death. Texts enjoin Hindu pilgrims to perform rites on behalf of ancestors and recently deceased kin. Sanskrit sources as well as devotional literature in regional vernacular languages praise certain places and their miraculous capacities.

Pilgrimage has been increasingly popular since the 20th century, facilitated by ever-improving transportation. Movement over actual distance is critical to pilgrimage, for what is important is not just visiting a sacred space but leaving home. Most pilgrimage centres hold periodic religious fairs called melas to mark auspicious astrological moments or important anniversaries. In 2001, for example, the Kumbh Mela in Allahabad was attended during a six-week period by tens of millions of pilgrims.

Because of shared elements in rituals, a pilgrim from western Rajasthan does not feel alienated in the eastern pilgrimage town of Puri, even though the spoken language, the landscape and climate, the deities’ names and appearances, and the food offerings are markedly different from those the pilgrim knows at home. Moreover, pilgrimage works to propagate practices among diverse regions because stories and tales of effective and attractive ritual acts circulate along with pilgrims.

Pilgrimage sites are often located in spots of great natural beauty thought to be pleasing to deities as well as humans. Environmental activists draw on the mythology of the sacred landscapes to inspire Hindu populations to adopt sustainable environmental practices. The Sanskrit and Hindi word for pilgrimage centre is tirtha, literally a river ford or crossing place. The concept of a ford is associated with pilgrimage centres not simply because many are on riverbanks but because they are metaphorically places for transition, either to the other side of particular worldly troubles or beyond the endless cycle of birth and death.